If you have multiple iOS devices such as an iPod, iPhone and iPad, you have probably figured out that sharing music in between them can be cumbersome. Thanks to iTunes Match though, you can store your music in your iCloud account and access it anywhere. All you have to do to set this up is to open iTunes, click on the Store menu and choose to Turn on iTunes Match. It does cost $24.99 per year, although that is worth it if you want to have all your of music shared across your devices.

Once you have completed the subscription process, you’ll be able to choose which music you want to add your music to. It can take about twenty minutes or so for Match to scan through the music you chose depending on how many songs you have in your library. Some people who have thousands of songs report that it takes up to a couple of hours, so there is no need to worry if you have a lot of music and it is taking a long time for this process.

After Match has scanned your library, it matches the music it found with the music in their databases, the matches are added to your iCloud account so you won’t have to upload them manually. After you have completed this step, the final part of the process is to check through the icons to see if you need to re-upload any music or delete duplicates. You will know this by the iCloud icons next to each song.

If a song wasn’t added to your iCloud account because of an error during the upload, you will see a cloud with an exclamation point. If that happens, try uploading the song again. If the song has licensing restrictions and cannot be added to iCloud, you will see a cloud with a line through it. If there is two clouds with a line through them, it means the song is a duplicate and you can click on the icon and choose to delete or keep both copies. If a song is stored in your iCloud account, but not in your iTunes account you will see a cloud with downward arrow that you can click on to add to your iTunes account. Finally, if there is cloud with an X in it, the song has been removed from your iCloud from another computer that has access to your account.