Apple Launches iTunes Match

After a number of beta releases, Apple today launched iTunes Match to the public. The $24.99 a year service, allows users to store music in iCloud, including tracks not purchased from iTunes. Your entire collection of music is then made available in iCloud.

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Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it on any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.

Also released today is iTunes 10.5.1, which is required for iTunes Match.

Are you planning on signing up for iTunes Match?