iTunes Match Beta Now Available for Developers (iTunes Beta 6.1)

Monday August 29, 2011 5:28 pm PDT by Jordan Golson

iTunes Match was released to developers today in an email from Apple:

itunesmatchbeta
In the email, Apple notes that beta subscribers will receive an additional 3 months free with their $24.99 paid subscription to cover the beta plus the standard 12 months after launch.

Apple also advises customers to maintain a local backup of their iTunes library and any music they add to iCloud. "Apple will periodically reset your iCloud library during the beta and it is critical that you backup your music regularly. Some features and optimizations of iTunes Match will not be available during the beta."

iTunes Match will give users the same benefits for their downloaded and ripped music as those purchased from the iTunes Music Store, up to 25,000 songs, for $24.99/year.

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Top Rated Comments

CLWelch

198 months ago

99% of my iTunes music is live DJ mixes or radio show rips....this feature is pointless for me.

Well, Apple shouldn't have even bothered with it.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

tsoelberg

198 months ago

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

crisss1205

198 months ago

Have to give him credit for how well targeted it is!

Just confirmed this is spam, same exact post on TUAW (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/08/29/itunes-match-beta-now-open-to-developers/).

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sakar

198 months ago

So it won't even allow you to sync 25,000 choice songs?

correct. pain in the a$$

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Peace

198 months ago

You do have to download. iTunes match isn't a streaming service. It's a downloading service.

I just "streamed" a song without downloading it. I had the choice of clicking on the cloud to download it or just hitting play and it streamed.

Now it may have started to download it but it was still streaming before it finished downloading.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

crisss1205

198 months ago

Hopefully this is enough proof that this can be a streaming service as well,