What will I lose if I let iTunes Match expire, and instead subscribe to Apple Music?

Solution 1:

Your understanding of the DRM is correct.

The functionality of iTunes Match is included with Apple Music, so yeah: win win.

Solution 2:

This is a nice way to ask What's the difference between iTunes Match and Apple Music?

You have yourself covered as long as you download all of your Purchased and uploaded music from Apple's servers before your subscription lapses.

• iTunes Match was priced at $2 a month to store everything online and sync playlists, metadata and songs across multiple devices
• Apple Music is priced at $10 a month to do everything iTunes Match did. It also adds nearly unlimited DRM downloads of the catalog, nearly unlimited streaming of the entire catalog, and reduction in advertisements of streamed content.

Going forward, do the math on which plan works best for yourself and potentially family organized group budget wise. I'm all in on the value of Apple Music. It's like the best record shops on the planet are my personal lending library and the due dates are extended for as long as I choose to pay up.

The only thing I'm not all in on is that my master iTunes Library is on an older Mac that I've totally cut off from the internet until I'm confident how my library lasts and how speedy a download of 40 GB will be should I choose to exit the plan.