Apple Released iTunes Match Beta For Developers

Yesterday Apple released a beta of the iTunes Match for developers. Apple described the system as follows:

iTunes Match stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer.

The video from Insanely Great Mac shows how this service works. From this video you can also see that this is both downloading and streaming service.

For the $25 a year, the service will scan your iTunes music collection and make it available for you from any computer or iOS devices linked to iTunes.

Songs that are available in iTunes Music Store will be streamed (at 256kbps bitrate) from the master copy and you don’t need to upload the songs on your devices. Songs that are not available in iTunes can be uploaded to iCloud. With this service, you can form your music collection (up to 25,000 songs) and access them from any iOS devices and computers.

This service allows you to save valuable space on your devices and listen to your music, so long as you have an Internet connection. Reportedly iTunes Match will launch alongside the iOS 5 release this fall.