Using iTunes Match, will my songs be removed from my device to free up storage space?

[iMore Question]

I have a lot of songs in my iTunes on my laptop. I've subscribed to iTunes Match. Once they upload, will they be deleted? I don't want to use so much HD space.

 

[kch50428]

With Match, what's on your local hard drive stays on your local hard drive... And you should keep local copies as a backup...

 

[Tartarus]

I have a lot of songs in my iTunes on my laptop. I've subscribed to iTunes Match. Once they upload, will they be deleted? I don't want to use so much HD space.

Like ^^^ said, they won't get deleted unless you delete them yourself. If you would like to free up space, you can delete them of course. But I strongly recommend you to backup your music first, as iTunes Match sometimes replaces songs with the wrong version of that song. For example if you have a explicit version of a song, it is possible it gets replaced by the clean version. Or even sometimes when you have a live version it gets replaced by studio version. There are even cases with more serious errors.

Better safe than sorry, so backup first.