I want to pay the $25/year for iTunes Match specifically to get my thousands of low-bitrate tracks "upgraded" to high-bitrate.
Will I be able to invoke the service, get high-bitrate tracks downloaded to my Mac, and sync it with my iPod Classic? Or is it only for iOS/iCloud streaming?
Best Answer
Yes, this is possible. Once the cloud has matched your lower bitrate song, make a final backup and delete that song from your iTunes library. You can then re-download the "standard" version from Apple's servers.
Jason Snell has a great writeup on an easy way to keep track of the songs by using the power of smart playlists: