Apple launches Itunes Match service

Apple has launched its Itunes Match service, but the launch comes several weeks after the original planned date. Itunes Match is an Apple subscription service that automatically scans all of the songs on a user's Apple computer and matches them with equivalents on Apple's cloud servers, while also allowing users to manually upload songs that are not in Apple's catalogues.

Apple will match up to 25,000 songs, whether they were gained legitimately or not. In addition to solving the problem of illegally acquired music, which the music industry can now make a small income on, Itunes Match works as a good backup service for ensuring that no content is lost while also allowing a user to access his or her music on multiple computers.

Itunes Match was originally slated for a late October release, but Apple failed to launch it on time.
Apple has turned on its iTunes Match service — although it's two weeks late. Songs that are not recognized can be uploaded automatically. Apple declined to comment on the delay. Allowing users to add high-quality versions of the music they've ripped from CDs. The service, which forms part of the new iTunes 10.5.1, lets users access their music collection from the cloud on up to ten devices and costs $25 per year.

Users can store up to 25,000 tracks, as well as any purchased through iTunes. "ITunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud," explains the company. "And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match.