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Apple raises iTunes Match iCloud Music Library limit to 100k songs, up from 25k

Apple Music

 

As promised by Eddy Cue earlier in the year, Apple has now raised the limits on iTunes Match and Apple Music library for matched songs from 25,000 to 100,000 songs.

Cue had previously announced on Twitter that Apple was aiming for 100k for iOS 9 and just in time for the holidays, that promise has been fulfilled. This means users with larger music libraries can now enjoy the benefits of matching songs in the iTunes Cloud to make them available on all their devices. Matching songs gives another option for people who cannot afford the more expensive 64 GB and 128 GB iPhone models by offloading local music storage to the cloud.

It is not unusual for home music collections to surpass 25,000 songs so the initial limits were unfeasible for many users. Most, but admittedly not all, libraries should fall in the 100k quota however. iCloud Music Library access is available through either Apple Music or iTunes Match. Both services offer the same match/upload music locker feature, with Apple Music building on top of that a full streaming subscription service for $9.99 a month.

Apple is bolstering its Apple Music service significantly in the last few months of the year. It rolled out Apple Music for Android in November and has announced support for Sonos home speaker systems beginning December 15th. The full rollout for Apple Music + Sonos will launch in 2016.

Thanks Stephanie for the heads up.

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Comments

  1. ’bout time

  2. When will apple allow iTunes Match sharing with family members? it does not make sense not to allow it,.. specially since they have the family plan for Apple Music

  3. tedium79 - 8 years ago

    I’d much rather they’d bumped up the free iCloud storage tier instead. 5GB is just too low.

    • nelmat - 8 years ago

      They bumped up the free iCloud storage tier and reduced prices/increased capacity already this year, surpassing Dropbox in terms of cost and the free storage limit. And here they are increasing something else and still people are complaining.

      • Ben Reinhardt - 8 years ago

        Umm… they didn’t rise the free iCloud tier, its still 5gb. And they have the same prices as drop box…

      • nelmat - 8 years ago

        Nope, was increased to 5GB and prices were dropped. Initially eating Dropbox, but Dropbox have jiggled their pricing structure and it now matches, at less here in the UK. It’s a good service, fairly priced. As is iTunes Match, which just got even better.

  4. am i the only one having issues with songs info vanishing suddenly on iOS ever since they decided to raise the limite to 100k?? it freaks me out and it’s the most annoying bug i’ve ever had

    • nelmat - 8 years ago

      No issues here, but this was only increased over the weekend, so no time to see any issues.

  5. pandren (@pandren) - 8 years ago

    Just curious about “raised the limits for matched songs from 25,000 to 100,000 songs”. The raised limit doesn’t effect bought songs? Feeling a bit confused here.

    • I don’t think so. As far as I know, bought songs were always separate. They aren’t counted in.

    • nelmat - 8 years ago

      Purchased content isn’t included in total storage, never has been. iTunes Match is for content you’ve provided from elsewhere to be matched with a drm free/256kb version from Apple, or have your own file uploaded for later retrieval.

      Apple Music adds to this the ability to stream/download all the iTunes Store music library. The difference being that if you cancel Apple Music, you lose all the music you’ve streamed/downloaded from the store without purchasing, if you cancel iTunes, you just lose your online backup.

      • nelmat - 8 years ago

        Damn the lack of edit on here. ‘If you cancel iTunes match’…

  6. lkrupp215 - 8 years ago

    “It is not unusual for home music collections to surpass 25,000 songs so the initial limits were unfeasible for many users.”

    I call that total B.S. Prove it iMore. Show us the surveys or studies that show this statistic. It’s more like compulsive hoarding. It’s the idea of having rather than using that many tracks. No different than the spec fetish crowd who always has to have the fastest CPU or the most DRAM.

  7. vkd108 - 8 years ago

    In these days of crazed NSA and GCHQ spying and data mining, why not take one extra step towards safeguarding yourself and NOT put anything on the “cloud”? I am positive that the benefits gained from protecting yourself far outweigh any supposed benefits gained from the “cloud”. Get over it.

  8. vkd108 - 8 years ago

    Just buy a Samsung External HD and voila, all your music, films, photos, data, anything digital you want actually, is instantly available whereever you like, with the added benefit that nobody will charge you a monthly fee nor data mine your archives nor spy on you.

    • Justin Blake Burnett - 8 years ago

      Sweet! I was always worried the NSA would find out that I’m a closeted Taylor Swift fan. Now where do I plug this thing into my iPhone…

      • vkd108 - 8 years ago

        Just bluetooth it to your iMac and back it up from there. If you’ve only got Taylor Swift, some may ask why bothering to back up in the first place?

      • Justin Blake Burnett - 8 years ago

        But that’s not having instant access to your music wherever you like, which is the entire reason iTunes Match exists, versus backing up to a hard drive that I can’t access from my phone without having to go through a computer first. It’s like you’re purposely misunderstanding the advantages of cloud based storage. And the Taylor thing was a joke. I’m a digital privacy advocate, but in the completely insane case where the NSA would actually spend the time and energy to discover someone’s music choices, I honestly don’t care. Using paranoia about the NSA so flippantly in an article about MUSIC archives demeans the actual dangers of a surveillance state.

  9. Justin Cockerham - 8 years ago

    If apple would combine this with Apple Music i would be all in!

  10. Stephen Michael Simon - 8 years ago

    I really wish this would “roll out” to everyone because I just recently renewed my iTunes Match subscription and I definitely still can’t upload more than 25k. I have close to 36k actually and had been trying to keep my music collection in check by not keeping all the bootlegs I used to have from my favorite artists. Now I gotta go and re-download all those for the forthcoming 75k limit increase.

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.