Kirk McElhearn, writing on his blog about the difference between iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library:
Both match your iTunes library and store your purchases. Both allow you to access these files, and listen to them, on multiple devices. But with iTunes Match, when you download a matched or uploaded file, you get either the iTunes Store matched copy, or the copy that iTunes uploaded of your original file.
When you match and download files from iCloud Music Library, however, you get files with DRM; the same kind of files you get when you download files from Apple Music for offline listening.
The critical issue here is backing up your un-DRMed music files. Unlike iTunes Match, if you download matched un-DRMed files from iCloud Music Library, you’ll end up with a DRMed version of those files. To repeat this another way, if iCloud Music Library takes in a song file with no DRM and it has a DRM version of that same song, you’ll have no way to get back your original song file without DRM.
Back up your song library before you turn on iCloud Music Library, just to be safe.
I find the new Apple music very confusing, both the service and the app.
Yup. This is exactly like display settings in Display & Brightness and Accessibility. I think there were 3 or 4 before iOS7. Now there’s like 10 or 12 with most of them needed to counter the “improvements” they made to the look and feel of iOS7. Parallax Effect…really? It appears that Steve was the only one in the company saying “No”. I can only guess how many times a day he had to say it.
That’s just nuts. Fine for offline listening files that I don’t own. But my music that gets uploaded? No freaking way!
As for Apple Radio. WAY TOO MUCH HIP HOP!
Thousands of times
Isn’t this a known fact? Why does Kirk think it will not be DRMed?
“But my music that gets uploaded? No freaking way!”
Your music upload will be a part of Apple Music.
I was an iTunes Match subscriber, I subscribe to Apple Music, I diabled itunes Match auto-renew. I download matched songs from the iCloud Music Library as .m4a files.
I agree. All my matched songs download as .m4a files. There is no DRM.
What Kirk is seeing is correct. Songs that you own and have been uploaded/matched via iTunes Match or Apple Music are still DRM free if you download them.
Anything from Apple Music that you download for offline listening (and don’t previously own) has DRM.
That’s not how it works.
That’s it? How about an explanation?
Why did you delete “This is an issue, just waiting to bite people” from the original post? Afraid to offed “someone”?
This is messed up. Apple should have been more up front about this.
Boy that’s not how it sounded above. That’s perfectly fine. If I don’t own it, they can DRM it all they want.