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Apple Music doesn’t stream the entire iTunes library, just most of it (The Beatles among the exceptions)

Contrary to many assumptions being posted this morning, Apple Music doesn’t allow you to stream the entire iTunes library – just most of it. As The Verge notes, The Beatles are among the exceptions.

Even Beats Music got this wrong, stating in its FAQ that Apple Music gives you everything you get with Beats “plus, you can play all of the songs in the iTunes catalog” … 

While consumers have been making the switch from download to streaming for some time now, artists and music labels alike have viewed streaming services with some suspicion, unsure how revenues would compare to traditional sales. Taylor Swift famously pulled her entire catalog from Spotify, saying that the free tier devalued music.

Apple’s free tier (beyond the initial three-month free trial) is limited to its radio stations, so it has managed to get Swift on board, but some artists and labels resist even paid streaming, believing they will make more money when their music is only available for download. Apple says you can stream over 30 million tracks – the same number given by Spotify.

So you’ll certainly be able to stream most of the iTunes catalog, but don’t be surprised to find a few omissions.

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Comments

  1. Dino - 9 years ago

    Pretty sure all of the Apple Music Radio stations will be available for free (but with limited skipping), not just the Beats 1 station as mentioned in this article.

  2. cantoodesign - 9 years ago

    Does anybody know what will happen with iTunes Match accounts?

    • bizzenwoof - 9 years ago

      “Does Apple Music work with iTunes Match?
      Yes. Apple Music and iTunes Match are independent but complementary.”
      from – (bottom of page) http://www.apple.com/music/membership/

    • Christoph Lindemann - 9 years ago

      it remains just as it was – when you have iTunes match you can also stream your purchased itunes library and uploaded songs – but it is not included in your applemusic fee

      • iSRS - 9 years ago

        Actually, there is some double-speak there, as well.

        From http://www.apple.com/music/membership/ (emphasis mine)

        With an Apple Music membership, your entire library lives in iCloud. We compare every track in your collection to the Apple Music library to see if we have a copy. If we do, you can automatically listen to it straight from the cloud. [b]If you have music that’s not in our catalog, we upload those songs from iTunes on your Mac or PC. It’s all in iCloud, so it won’t take up any space on your devices.[/b]

        Then:

        [b]Does Apple Music work with iTunes Match?[/b]
        Yes. Apple Music and iTunes Match are independent but complementary.

    • Jörg Wißemann - 9 years ago

      When you purchase AppleMusic, all your music will be uploaded to iTunes as well (when not already in iTunes), so you can cancel your iTunes Match, i guess

    • Rainer BeardMan - 9 years ago

      Uploading your personal music collection to Apple Music will count against your iCloud storage. Using iTunes Match it doesn’t!

      • Rainer BeardMan - 9 years ago

        I guess, only “none matched” songs will count against iCloud storage.

      • Evan - 9 years ago

        Can you post a link where you read this please.
        I haven’t seen anything about it counting against your personal iCloud storage and would be surprised if purchasing an additional service like Apple Music didn’t at least bump up the amount you could store.

      • Rainer BeardMan - 9 years ago

        Just have a look at the Apple Music page “Your entire library lives in iCloud…” and there you will find a link to iCloud informations. And there, at the iCloud page, you will find no information about uploading music to iCloud is for free.

        I’m pretty sure…of course, not the whole music you’re uploading, but the “none matched” songs, who aren’t in the iTunes catalogue, will count against your iCloud storage.

        There are 3 cases…
        -with Apple Music AND iTunes Match subscription you’ll be able to upload “none matched” songs to iCloud and nothing is counting against your iCloud storage, because you paid for your iTunes Match subscription.

        -you have only a Apple Music subscription, “none matched” songs will count against your iCloud storage and you’ll need to upgrade your storage plan, depending on how many “none matched” songs you have.
        (believe me, I have a lot of “none matched” songs, though they’re are listed in the iTunes catalogue, but not purchased at iTunes…e.g.older CD’s etc.)

        -you have only a iTunes Match subscription, you can upload your whole music library (till 25.000 songs are reached) to iCloud and everything is ok.

        Doesn’t these 3 cases make sense, while Apple is explaining “Apple Music and iTunes Match are independent but complementary.”???

    • Josie (@josie) - 9 years ago

      Currently a subscription to iTunes match allows unlimited skips in iTunes radio. I wonder if that carries over our will require a subscription to Apple music?

      • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

        You pay $25 a year for cloud syncing and match. How does that have anything to do with the the $10 PER MONTH subscription to Apple Music, which gives you access to the music you don’t already own?

        I’m just floored with how anyone could be confused about this.

    • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

      Why would ANYTHING “happen” to them? Has nothing to do with Apple Music.

      • smyxz - 9 years ago

        When I get unlimited streaming for songs in iTunes, why would I need music sync from iTunes match? It seems like Apple Music basically substitutes for iTunes Match function because it already gives me access to my songs online, plus it syncs my purchase history across devices.

  3. Jörg Wißemann - 9 years ago

    fair enough. if I like the music of the non-streaming artist, i just buy it

  4. Jason Chalil - 9 years ago

    Thats incorrect… If you go to the  website.  music will also hold all of your songs in the cloud aka what iTunes match previously did included in that monthly fee. You will then be able to stream those songs. It will match copies from apple iTunes with the songs that you have in your library.

    • Jonny - 9 years ago

      Do we know if they’re talking about iTunes purchases or just the whole library? I assume whole library but who knows.

      • Charlie Shi - 9 years ago

        You will have access to the whole library. The only advantage of having your existing libraries synced to the cloud that I can think of is to maintain your playlists. Otherwise you can download new songs and playlists at your leisure from the 30 million songs in iTunes.

  5. marceloard - 9 years ago

    Start by the wrong way, why don’t listen all catalog?

  6. Remi (@ReemiFenty) - 9 years ago

    Is it that there will be Taylor Swift on AppleMusic’s catalog?

  7. Chris Skinner - 9 years ago

    Meaning that everyone that truly wants subscription streaming to be the way music is accessed in the future will need to boycott those artists that do not offer their music via streaming services.

    I have purchased exactly one song since I signed up for Spotify, and I regret it. As much as I wanted it, I should not have given my money to an artist/label stuck in the dark ages. I want my music via a streaming/subscription service, or I don’t want it at all.

  8. friarnurgle - 9 years ago

    We use the Spotify Family plan and have been pretty happy. We’ll give Apple Music a try, especially for the 3 free months. However all of this music service talk has gotten me thinking. I do have a ton of music sitting in dusty CDs and hard drive space. There are also lots of podcasts and radio stations/apps/websites. So why am I paying $180 a year for streaming?

    • joe smith (@joe815smith) - 9 years ago

      Convenience. Those CDs are dusty because you find it inconvenient to take them out and listen to them one at a time.

    • r00fus1 - 9 years ago

      Your complaint is valid, but you forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to rip the CDs, host the files and ensure your host (i.e., home server) is secured properly.

      As long as my non-matched music makes it up to the cloud also, $15/mo for my family seems like a good deal.

      My main issue is that AppleIDs can’t be merged. My wife and I have like a thousand dollars of purchases on each of our accounts and we can’t merge it easily, nor can we have one device sign on to multiple accounts (Family sharing was buggy when it was released – lots of horror stories – and I haven’t even re-examined it).

      • Erik Veland - 9 years ago

        Well you are going to have to as the family music account requires you use family sharing.

  9. Aristomenis Tsirbas - 9 years ago

    My iTunes Match took a week to upload non-matched content. So I’m wondering if Apple Music will also take another week to match that data, or will the service simply use my already uploaded content since it’s more or less the same company. Just not sure where the line between ‘Independent and complimentary’ lies.

  10. PMZanetti - 9 years ago

    There are a lot of things I would pay $9.99 a month for, especially from Apple, but streaming the iTunes catalog of songs that I don’t already own is NOT one of them.

    I can imagine some people with no music library of their own finding it appealing, but its not for me.

    • freediverx - 9 years ago

      Because Unless you have a very limited music collection, this service allows you to access all your music from any device without actually using up storage space on each device, except for songs you want to listen to offline. iTunes Match is a great deal.

    • Joe - 9 years ago

      $10 = 1 Album
      $10 = 30 Million songs.

      Seems pretty compelling for me. I’m guessing you haven’t used an Rdio or Spotify for more than a month. I had no need for them until I started using Rdio, now I can’t imagine how I did it before.

  11. Ken Welsby - 9 years ago

    I’m confused by the new Apple Music service. My iTunes library is heading for a gigabyte in size – according to the footer bar in the main iTunes window, “1093 albums, 63.2 days”. It sits on its own hard drive on the server.

    Most of the music has been ripped from CDs, mostly classical music – and much of that is NOT in the iTunes store. Will all that music magically be uploaded to the cloud – for less than a tenner a month?

    And will it still be CD quality – I currently play most of my music through my hi-fi or home theatre setup either via USB DAC or Airport Express. Will the quality depend on network speed?

    • Charlie Shi - 9 years ago

      Yes it will. iTunes Match already does that for $20/year, and Apple Music does the same plus it gives you access to 30 million songs in iTunes.You will have access to all the songs you own in the cloud and they will be accessible at 256kbps quality on any of your Apple devices. (Possibly android if they implement it soon)

      • Mad Max (@windstorm) - 9 years ago

        Not sure if that is correct, if most of the your music is “not in the iTunes” library then it may not work as you expect. It was my understanding iTunes match is not a “dropbox/streaming” type solution. It tries to “match” what exists in Apple’s own library. I know it will try to upload anything that doesn’t match, but in my experience when you want to listen to something that is not in Apple’s library you have to wait to download the content, it does not “stream”. That would be no different than just “syncing” the files you want to your device.

      • vpndev - 9 years ago

        No. iTunes Match does NOT do anything for you if your library is large (>25,000 songs). If it’s that big, you can’t even sign up.

        Nor can you manage down the number, short of deleting them from your library, so that you’re under the limit. Or buy extra capacity.

        Apple has really dropped the ball on this.

      • Erik Veland - 9 years ago

        1093 songs is likely under the 25K song limit. But yes, that is ridiculous and I hope the same limit does not apply to Apple Music. The not being able to sign up part (for my 75K+ library) is what has stopped me from using iTunes Radio all this time (I don’t tolerate ads).

  12. Rowland (@rowlandville) - 9 years ago

    If I buy Apple Music, why would I need iTunes Match? With 30mil songs at my fingertips, I might have a few songs that aren’t in the Apple library (The Beatles, for instance), but I can put those on my device at no charge and save $25 a year.

  13. vpndev - 9 years ago

    But if I have Beatles tracks in my own library, will Apple Music use those?

    I believe that it should and not to do so would be a mistake.

  14. Joe Pray - 9 years ago

    I read the posts below about iMatch, so I am familiar that Apple Music and iMatch will compliment each other. However, am I to understand that if you pay for Apple Music that it will also do the job of iMatch? So is there a need to renue my iMatch yearly fee when it comes up next?

  15. Johanna Lopez - 9 years ago

    If the Beatles catalogue is not available on Apple Radio then I’m not interested….

  16. Bill McKinley - 9 years ago

    I would like to know if it’s possible, as an artist, to still submit a song to iTunes and NOT their streaming service. I have just submitted some new tracks to them via an outside service, and I had to check a box indicating that the songs had to be streamed, too, which I abhor (yes, I know, dark ages, blah, blah, blah…).
    Is there an opt-out process? I can’t find information online…

  17. thejgrimm - 9 years ago

    This is actually incorrect. To start, The Beatles are not in the iTunes library of content to begin with, simply because their equity (equity is capital, or simply said, worth) is of too high a value for Apple to be able to gain copyright access to. But that is beside the point I am about to make. Okay, now to address the premise of this article. Apple Music and iTunes aren’t actually related. One is a membership to gain access to songs and videos, while the other is a marketplace for the same things. So these two things actually don’t associate. And contrary to this statement. The window of access in line as to what you can listen to on Apple Music and to what you you can purchase on iTunes, are of course not the same, but Apple Music does actually offer more content [music] than iTunes, if you so desired you could make a list of 30+ songs you have available on Apple Music that you can’t but on iTunes, and of course the same goes the other way. There are definitely song purchasable on iTunes that can’t be found on Apple Music, this is because iTunes is a store, so it is limited to commercial content (or stuff that has been published or made with intent for sale or business). which means iTunes doesn’t have access to certain live and special versions of songs. While on the other side, Apple Music is a “membership” so called, which means that, Apple has a liability account devoted to access to any kind of content they want, the reason they have more content is because this wouldn’t be considered public or commercial sale, this is Apple letting people have access to what isn’t theirs, but can be “rented out” to people. So it’s more of a private deal. While as iTunes is public.

    If any questions do come up, I do encourage you to ask! I am a teacher of business and economic related classes (as well as some other subjects), and would be happy to respond to questions!

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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