What is iTunes Match and how does it work

The cloud service makes a backup of your iTunes library and will synchronize this between your Mac and iOS devices, allowing you to access your iTunes content anywhere.
The service is currently only available in the United States and it only costs $25 per year. Apple is working on deals with record labels to make sure that iTunes Match will be available in every country. In this article we will take a look at the new service and look whether it is anything more than a way to exchange your illegally acquired music collection with higher quality iTunes library.
How does it work? iTunes Match works quite simple, once you enable the service three things will happen.
1. Your entire iTunes library will be analyzed, it will automatically detect if you bought a song via iTunes or that you got it from somewhere else (ripped from a CD). If you didn’t bought it via iTunes it will also check if it’s available in the iTunes Music Store.
2. Music that hasn’t been purchased in the iTunes Music Store will be matched with songs that are available. These songs will not have to be uploaded; Apple will just give you access to the iTunes version. This method will safe you a lot of time and will improve the quality of your library.
3. Music that iTunes can’t match will be uploaded to the cloud.
Once this process is done, your music is available in the cloud and can be accessed from your Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad via iTunes Match – Internet connection required. When buying a new album via iTunes or getting it from a other location, it will automatically sent it to all of your iDevices and Macs. Are you looking for a song that isn’t on your iPhone but on your Mac? Then you can just start downloading the song via iTunes as long as it has been matched.
There are however a few more benefits to iTunes Match that Apple hardly advertises.
-       iTunes Match links the music from the iTunes Store but will keep using your own meta data when you added a song yourself.
-       Music that has been downloaded from a other location in a low quality bit-rate will now be exchanged with a AAC version in 265k.
-       New additions will be automatically matched, whether you downloaded an album via the iTunes Store or ripped a CD, iTunes Match will immediately start synchronizing the music between all your devices.
What are the limitations of iTunes Match?
-       Your library can’t be bigger than 25,000 songs; you however don’t have to add the songs that you bought in the iTunes Music Store. If your library is too big, you will not be able to use iTunes Match, there is now way to assign a certain part of your music collection. It is all or nothing!
-       For those that have ripped their CDs in Lossless quality should be aware, if iTunes matches the song it will be available in 265K AAC file on other devices. When iTunes Match can’t find a match the songs will be first converted to 265k AAC’s and then be uploaded to the cloud. The local files in your iTunes library will however not be changed.
For those that are tired of selecting every song in iTunes this might be a great solution and you never have to be afraid again for a hard drive failure you will keep your iTunes library with you. The price is great, although we hope to see more countries added soon.