14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has launched iTunes Match by releasing iTunes 10.5.1 Final today. The music-matching service has been in beta for a while, but Apple has finally decided to roll it out to the masses, albeit still in beta.
Even though iTunes 10.5.1 is now available to the general population with iTunes Match, Apple still labels the service as a beta, most likely as a precautionary measure until everything is ironed out.
“If you want the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution,” says the Mac maker. “It’s built right into the iTunes app on your Mac or PC and the Music app on your iOS devices. And it lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve imported from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. For just $24.99 a year.”
“iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store,” the Cupertino giant explains. “Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match.”
As for the entire “iTunes in the Cloud” service, it syncs all the music, apps, and books you purchase automatically with all your devices. Customers can also opt to download only the stuff they want to just the devices they want.
iTunes 10.5.1 is a free software update for both Mac and Windows users who subscribe to iCloud.
The minimum requirement on the Mac front is Macintosh computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor and 512MB of RAM, Mac OS X version 10.5 (Leopard) or later, and some 200MB of available disk space. For other features, Safari 4.0.3 or later is required.