A common misconception many people have about iCloud is that iTunes Match is a part of the core iCloud services. iCloud does make all of your iTunes store purchases available across all of your devices and computers, but iTunes Match is actually a separate service, which will cost you $24.99 per year. And if you’re a big music fan and use your computer and iOS devices to listen to music regularly, that fee may be worthwhile. iTunes Match allows you to sync your entire iTunes library across all devices, making all of your tunes available either as downloads or as streaming audio. Perhaps an anecdote might help show how cool this is:
One day at work, Sean popped the latest CD from Sarah Hart (the wife of our very own Kevin Hipp) into his laptop and uploaded it to iTunes so that he could listen to it in the office. That evening after work, Sean was in the car with his family and wanted to share Sarah’s music. So he pulled out his iPhone and saw a notification that the album was available for download or streaming, which allowed him to play the music over the car speakers instantly. Pretty cool, huh?
So iTunes Match is a great service, and while it would be great if it were available as part of iCloud for free, we feel like the price is pretty fair.