Interesting result after Itunes match expiry and downloaded music

[Wreckus]

What I read previously is that whatever music I download after ITunes Match expires but still have Apple Music will have DRM. Not sure if that's correct. I backed up copies of numerous Beatles CD's to ITunes match earlier in the year when my ITunes Match subscription was still active.

Today, it expired and I got the email from Apple saying that it has expired. that's fine because I'm using Apple Music and plan to keep on Apple music; I also expected, in the future, that any cd's I backed up in the past with ITunes match will have DRM.

That may not be the case as I am downloading my Beatles collection to my windows 10 partition right now and they don't have DRM, it still says Matched AAC Audio file. How can that be when my ITunes Match subscription has expired?

 

[P_Devil]

iTunes Match files do not have any DRM, only music files through Apple Music have DRM. iTunes Match files are straight up mpeg-4 AAC files that will playback on any compatible device whether it's an iPhone, iPad, iTunes, an Xbox One, PS4, Kenwood car CD deck, a Samsung Galaxy S6, etc. Those Match files were backed up to your account (your iCloud music account), they will always be DRM-free. The only time you'll have to deal with DRM is if you delete those files from your system and your iCloud account, then you will have to download the Apple Music versions and they will have DRM. Any files backed up by you are not going to be wrapped in DRM and all previously downloaded/backed up iTunes Match files will still be DRM-free. Just make sure you hang onto those files.

 

[Wreckus]

Ah ok. I thought they would automatically get drm'd since I'm not renewing iTunes match but keeping apple music.

 

[Ledsteplin]

iTunes Match files do not have any DRM, only music files through Apple Music have DRM. iTunes Match files are straight up mpeg-4 AAC files that will playback on any compatible device whether it's an iPhone, iPad, iTunes, an Xbox One, PS4, Kenwood car CD deck, a Samsung Galaxy S6, etc. Those Match files were backed up to your account (your iCloud music account), they will always be DRM-free. The only time you'll have to deal with DRM is if you delete those files from your system and your iCloud account, then you will have to download the Apple Music versions and they will have DRM. Any files backed up by you are not going to be wrapped in DRM and all previously downloaded/backed up iTunes Match files will still be DRM-free. Just make sure you hang onto those files.

Nice job with the explanation! 🏼

 

[P_Devil]

Ah ok. I thought they would automatically get drm'd since I'm not renewing iTunes match but keeping apple music.

Nope. They're yours, forever, once you download them. The only things you will be locked out are matching new songs and the ability to re-download matched songs. Every song that you have previously matched and downloaded will be yours. So keep what you have and don't delete it. You can even copy your downloaded matched file to an external hard drive as a backup.

Nice job with the explanation! ��

Thank you