Today Apple officially released iTunes Match in the UK. The service allows you to store your entire music collection in iCloud, for access from any device running iTunes.
Unlike Google Music, iTunes Match will automatically scan your library and make any song that is a match with the iTunes store instantly available in iCloud. Therefore you don't need to upload your entire library, which can be a very time consuming process.
iTunes Match is available now from iTunes (make sure you are running the latest version) and costs £21.99 per year. Personally I'll be interested to see how it compares to Google Music.
Over the past week we have seen Apple release iTunes Match in the US and Google re-release their Cloud Music service.
iTunes Match
As previously announced at the iCloud launch, iTunes Match is a new subscription service from Apple that allows you to store all of your music in the cloud for access from anywhere or any device (similar to the Google and Amazon offerings). The unique selling point of iTunes Match is the massive library on offer and the ability to "match" your content. This means that instead of having to re-purchase or upload your content to the cloud, iTunes can automatically scan your library and make any song that is a match instantly available in the iCloud. Any music that does not match an offering from iTunes will be uploaded in a similar style to Google Music.
The image below shows the iTunes Match process running in iTunes (notice the new uploaded and matched tags):
iTunes Match is currently only available in the US, but early accounts have been positive. Personally I believe Apple are desperate not to have another "MobileMe" on their hands, so I expect the global roll out to be a little slower then other Apple launches. However hopefully the UK is next on the list.
When iTunes Match does become available it will require a yearly subscription (currently $24.99 in the US).
Google Music
Google had already released their Music Service in beta several months ago, however this latest announcement is significant as now the service includes the backing of the music industry, which means for the first time you can purchase and download music directly from the Google store (similar to the iTunes model). Google claim they already have over 13 million tracks from the likes of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI. Like iTunes, music can be purchased per-track, typically ranging from $0.69-$1.29 (no UK prices available as of yet).
On top of the new store, Google also announced tight Android and Google+ integration as well as the continued ability to upload your previously purchased songs to the cloud, with the first 20,000 uploads being completely free (which is a great deal).
For more information on Google Music check out the promotion video below:
As both iTunes Match and Google Music are still currently only available in the US, I guess us Brits will have to make do with streaming services like Spotify for a little longer.
Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 9:39PM | 
