How to use iTunes Match?

Apple has announced the release of much awaited iTunes Match on to the international market. The subscription fee is absolutely nominal at $24.99 a year. One of the major features of using iTunes Match is that users can have access to the copy of their iTunes Library that is being stored in the cloud.

One of the basic necessities is the requirement of iTunes 10.5.1 version. Users will have to check whether they are using iTunes 10.5.1 version. If not, they will have to upgrade to iTunes 10.5.1 version.

To check the version, the following steps have to be followed;

Mac

Go to iTunes

Select ‘About iTunes’

If its not iTunes 10.5.1, then the users will have to again navigate towards iTunes

Then select ‘Check for Updates’ to download and install the latest version

PC

Navigate towards iTunes

Click ‘About iTunes’

Click on ‘Help’ menu

Then select the ‘Check for Updates’ menu

Once the user updates to iTunes 10.5.1, users can now see the iTunes Match that is placed under the store in the left side of the panel.

Now click on to the iTunes Match option

Then select the ‘Subscribe for $24.99’ button that will be represented in Blue color

iTunes will now begin the scanning of the users library

iTunes will then upload the songs that it was unable to match earlier

Once the users are taken through the matching process, users will now be able to access the matched as well as uploaded songs that is present in the cloud by means of another computer by means of iTunes or an iOS device

It has to be noted that Apple lets the user share their iTunes Match with ten peripheral devices like computers

Adding an iOS based system

Access the Settings page

Click Music

Users can now see the option named ‘iTunes Match’

Move the slide on to the ON position

Then the users will have to enter their Apple ID Password

Click ‘Enable’

Once the option is enabled, a new menu item titled ‘Show all music’ will be popped up

Users will have to turn it to the ON position

Turning on the ‘Show all music’ option will show all the songs that are uploaded from the library to the cloud in the Music App

Now each song will be represented with an image of a cloud and an arrow icon, users can simply click on it to play as well as download

Users can even queue up the songs for downloading by clicking on to the cloud with an arrow icon

Adding a computer

Make sure that the user is running iTunes 10.5.1 version

Log in to the Apple account

Select iTunes Match

Apple now asks the user whether they want to add the computer

iTunes will now scan the library

iTunes will then match as well as upload the library also

It has to be noted that only one music library file in iTunes can be matched at a time

Finally after going through the set up process on the users second computer, users will then have complete access to all the songs that they have matched from their first computer

Users have the privilege of playing the song from the cloud in the iTunes without downloading it unlike in the iOS device by clicking on to the cloud with an arrow icon

This is how the users can use iTunes Match in both the iOS as well as Computers.