What is ITunes Match?
iTunes Match is a music service created by Apple Inc. that allows users to store their music library on Apple's servers (iCloud). For an annual subscription fee of $24.99, iTunes Match will scan a user's existing music library and match the songs to songs already available in Apple's iTunes Store catalog.
If a match is found, then iTunes Match will make that high-quality version from the iTunes catalog available to any of the user's devices instead of uploading the user's original copy. This saves on upload time and storage space. Any songs that are not matched are uploaded so the user's full library is still available from the cloud. This allows access to a user's entire music collection from any iOS device, Mac, PC using iTunes, or the Apple TV.
An advantage of iTunes Match over similar services is that is does not count towards a user's iCloud storage limits. It also provides higher quality 256kbps DRM-free songs compared to songs uploaded from a user's library. Overall, it provides seamless access to music across devices with minimal effort since matching is done automatically.