If you temporarily unsubscribe from iTunes Match, will your track list be deleted

itunes-match

What happens if you (temporarily) unsubscribe from iTunes Match? Will your library (i.e. the list of all your tracks that Apple stores on their servers) be deleted, or will it only be disabled until you renew your subscription?

Best Answer

I can't find any description in writing saying that there is any grace period for you to access playlists or any other data after you end a subscription period in iTunes Match.

I do recall a warning when signing up for Match that quite explicitly said that I needed to be sure to download all playlists and music from the cloud before my subscription ended. This is in addition to the caution to keep a backup copy of all data (which in the case of playlists would be using iTunes to export the library to an XML file regularly in addition to backing up each track).

Apple could be more generous about keeping non-subscriber data around for a grace period of a day or a week or a month, but why risk this when you can back up everything now and then update that backup with anything that changes a week before your subscription ends?