Okay, I have read and read and asked and asked. Here is my take, please correct me if I am wrong.
My computer I have match on, have for a few years. All of that music does not have DRM. I recently added the family iTunes Music service. When I did that and activated and launched iTunes, nothing happened to my library. No matching, no uploading, nothing that I saw. That makes sense since all of it was in the cloud and matched already. In the future, if I rip music to my library, it will go through the normal match process and I can always delete the original file and download the Apple Store non DRM copy that may be of better quality if I ripped at say 128. All of this assumes I keep iTunes match subscription. Get rid of iTunes Music, all I lose if access to that library and anything I added to my library from it. All sound right? Also, I see no place where I can see quantity that is in the cloud, where did that go?
My daughter has a new computer. She is a member of the family plan. I opened iTunes and said yes to joining the family. She then added music from her back-up hard drive. I assume Apple looked at that and theoretically "matched it in the cloud" by scanning what she added. If she were to delete that original file and then download from the cloud, it would not have DRM. I am speaking strictly about her computer and not other devices. If I cancel family plan, she still would retain any file that she owns (not added to library from iTunes Music) with no DRM on that computer. If I added iTunes Match to her account, then she could download non DRM music to up to 10 devices so long as she has that subscription.
I think I got it, do I?
My computer I have match on, have for a few years. All of that music does not have DRM. I recently added the family iTunes Music service. When I did that and activated and launched iTunes, nothing happened to my library. No matching, no uploading, nothing that I saw. That makes sense since all of it was in the cloud and matched already. In the future, if I rip music to my library, it will go through the normal match process and I can always delete the original file and download the Apple Store non DRM copy that may be of better quality if I ripped at say 128. All of this assumes I keep iTunes match subscription. Get rid of iTunes Music, all I lose if access to that library and anything I added to my library from it. All sound right? Also, I see no place where I can see quantity that is in the cloud, where did that go?
My daughter has a new computer. She is a member of the family plan. I opened iTunes and said yes to joining the family. She then added music from her back-up hard drive. I assume Apple looked at that and theoretically "matched it in the cloud" by scanning what she added. If she were to delete that original file and then download from the cloud, it would not have DRM. I am speaking strictly about her computer and not other devices. If I cancel family plan, she still would retain any file that she owns (not added to library from iTunes Music) with no DRM on that computer. If I added iTunes Match to her account, then she could download non DRM music to up to 10 devices so long as she has that subscription.
I think I got it, do I?