Hey, guys.
Brian Tong here with the cnet.com preview and we're gonna show you a first look at the iTunes Match Service that was recently released to developers with new features that Apple hasn't officially announced and will be coming this fall.
Now, iTunes Match is Apple's service for $24.99 a year and you can turn on iTunes Match by going into the Store menu.
It matches your own personal music collection with the same tracks on iTunes and then uploads your remaining songs that can't be matched to the iCloud and allows you to listen to your entire
collection anytime on your iOS devices.
Plus, you also be able to use this service with up to ten iOS devices and computers total and a maximum of five of those can be computers.
Now, once the iTunes Match Service completes, you'll be able to either stream tracks to your computer by playing them or click on the download icon to store them locally.
Once you've download it, the icon goes away and the size of the file changes from stream to a physical file size.
Now also here, I have my iPhone running the latest developer's build and I'll go into my settings, then music,
and I can turn on iTunes Match on my phone.
Now jumping to the music app and just like an iTunes, you'll see your tracks with the cloud icon next to each one.
Now, I can select the track and it will initially take some time to download it as it's streaming and it might also be intermittent because the first play basically behaves as if it's a streaming track but once it downloads, it will remain on your phone and you can also click on the cloud icon to download all your tracks locally.
Also, if you choose to download the entire album, click on "Download All" instead.
So, there's your first look at the iTunes Match Beta.
It's still a little inconsistent playing through songs cleanly on your first play and I've had to jump around tracks randomly but overall the service is pretty solid and delivers on its promise of giving you access to your entire collection of multiple devices and we'll wait to see the final product this fall.
For cnet.com, I'm Brian Tong.
