Apple is bringing its iTunes Match audio fingerprint technology to Apple Music subscribers, according to a report by The Loop. Even better, users don’t have to lift a finger in order to benefit from the updated tech — the new matches will happen automatically.
While Apple Music has always used iTunes Match in order to match songs between the user’s library and the service, it was previously using an older metadata-based version of the technology that was prone to errors. Now subscribers will get the same method used in the stand-alone iTunes Match service, which actually looks at the audio file to determine matches. This is especially useful for multiple recordings of the same song from the same artist, including studio and live recordings.
If you’re already a subscriber of both iTunes Match and Apple Music, you can now safely let your iTunes Match subscription lapse and still take advantage of the service. If you don’t want to subscribe to Apple Music, don’t worry: Apple will continue to offer iTunes Match as a stand-alone service at the same $30 per year price.
Despite song matches automatically happening as the new service rolls out, users shouldn’t have to worry about any of their songs being deleted, according to the report. Apple is deliberately taking the rollout very slowly, switching over 1 to 2 percent of its users every day, and keeping a close eye out for any bugs. At the rate Apple is going, the rollout will take a while to complete, so users will have to remain patient.
