Introducing Apple Music and iTunes Store Purchases
Apple Music is Apple’s music streaming service that gives you access to over 75 million songs for a monthly subscription fee (https://bellebodybuffer.com/apple-music-is-the-best-choice-for-iphone-users/). With Apple Music, you can stream any song in the catalog on demand, create playlists, get recommendations, and more.
The iTunes Store, on the other hand, allows you to purchase individual songs and albums to download and own forever. When you purchase music from the iTunes Store, the songs are saved on your devices and you can listen to them anytime, even offline. Purchased music is not part of your Apple Music subscription.
The main difference between Apple Music and the iTunes Store is that Apple Music offers access to stream songs on demand for a monthly fee, while the iTunes Store allows you to buy songs and albums to own permanently. So streaming gives you access to more music, but purchased music can be listened to anytime without an internet connection or ongoing subscription.
Checking your Apple Music Subscription Status
To check your Apple Music subscription status, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap on your Apple ID banner at the top. Then select ‘Subscriptions’ to view your list of active subscriptions.
This screen will indicate your Apple Music membership status, whether it is an active subscription, expired, or in a free trial period. An active subscription means you have full access to the Apple Music catalog and your purchased songs. An expired subscription restricts access to only purchased content. And a free trial provides temporary access to Apple Music before a paid subscription is required.
Knowing your current subscription status helps explain what content is available in your library. For example, an expired subscription would prevent streaming songs from Apple Music, requiring you to download past purchases to listen offline. Checking this periodically ensures your membership aligns with your intended access to Apple Music.
Locating Your iTunes Purchase History
Your iTunes purchase history allows you to see details of all the music, movies, TV shows, apps, and other content you’ve purchased through the iTunes Store on any device. This history can be accessed through your computer’s iTunes app or Settings on your iPhone/iPad.
To find your purchase history in iTunes on a computer, open the iTunes app and click on Account > Purchase History. This will show you a list of all your purchases with details like the purchase date, item name, artist/developer, and price paid. You can search and filter this list to find specific purchases.
On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Your Name > iTunes & App Store. Tap on your Apple ID and then tap View Account. Sign in and you’ll see your purchase history with the same details. You can also download previous purchases from here.
Reviewing your purchase history allows you to see everything you’ve bought, download previous purchases to a new device, and verify billing details. It can help you locate lost music, re-download apps, or identify unauthorized purchases. Keeping track of your history ensures you get full value from the content you’ve paid for on iTunes.
Source: https://wabarmy.com/receipt-examples/
Searching for Purchased Songs in Your Apple Music Library
When you download purchases from iTunes or Apple Music, they can get mixed into your overall Apple Music library. This makes it tricky to find purchases among your other music. Luckily, you can use the Search feature to easily locate purchased songs.
In the Apple Music app, tap the Search icon at the bottom. Here you can enter keywords, song titles, artists, albums, or other details related to your purchased music. Any matches from your purchased songs will appear in the results. Tap the Downloaded filter at the top to further narrow results to just songs stored on your device.
You can also use the Search History and Recently Played sections to uncover previously played purchased music. If you remember listening to the song recently, check these areas.
The Apple Music Search is quite intelligent and will match even partial titles or artist names. Don’t worry if you don’t recall the exact details. Try broad keywords related to the music and scroll through results.
For more tips, see Apple’s guide on finding purchased content: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211816
Downloading Purchased Songs to a Device
One of the main benefits of purchasing songs from the iTunes Store is being able to download them to your devices like iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Here’s how to download your music purchases to each device:
To download purchases to your iPhone or iPad, open the Apple Music app and tap on the Library tab. Go to Music > Purchased and you will see a list of all your purchases. Tap the cloud download icon next to each song to download it to your device. Downloads will take a few seconds depending on your internet speed.
On your Mac, open the Music app and click on Library in the sidebar. Go to the Purchased section and you’ll see your purchase history. Right click on any purchased song and choose Download to add it to your Mac’s music library for offline listening.
If you are having trouble downloading your purchased songs, here are some troubleshooting tips:
- Check that your device is connected to the internet and try downloading over a stable WiFi connection.
- Make sure you are signed in to the same Apple ID that was originally used to purchase the songs.
- Scroll down on the Purchased list to load more songs if needed. The list only loads a certain number of purchases initially.
- Restart your device and try downloading again. This can resolve temporary glitches.
Downloading your purchases ensures you can listen to them offline anytime and frees up storage on your iCloud Music Library.
Hide or Remove Uploaded/Matched Songs
If you only want to see the songs you’ve purchased in your Apple Music library, you can hide or remove any songs that have been uploaded or matched from Apple’s streaming catalog. Here’s how:
On your iPhone or iPad, open the Apple Music app and tap on the Library tab. Then tap on Songs to view your music library.
Tap the Edit button in the top right corner. This will allow you to select songs to hide or delete.
Tap on the circle next to any song you want to hide or remove. The circle will turn blue when selected. You can tap “Select All” to choose all songs currently visible.
Once you’ve selected the songs, tap the Delete or Hide button at the bottom. Delete will permanently remove the songs from your library. Hide will simply remove them from your Apple Music views.
After deleting or hiding songs, only your purchased content will remain visible in your library. This lets you view just the music you directly own.
You can also do this via iTunes on a Mac or PC. Select the songs, right click and choose Delete from Library or Hide from My Music. This will again let you declutter your Apple Music collections.
By removing or hiding uploaded and matched songs, you can focus solely on the music purchases in your Apple library.
Listening to Purchases Offline
One of the benefits of purchasing music from the iTunes Store or adding it to your Apple Music library is the ability to listen offline. This allows you to download songs, albums, and playlists over Wi-Fi or cellular data and then access them without an internet connection. According to Apple Support, you can download music you’ve added to your library by going to Settings > Music and toggling on “Download over Wi-Fi” (1). You can also touch and hold any music in your library and tap “Download” (2).
However, there are some limitations to offline listening. Downloaded music is only available on the device it was downloaded to. So if you download an album on your iPhone, you won’t be able to listen to it offline on your iPad unless you download it there too. There are also restrictions on how many times you can download the music and limits to the number of devices you can have it on simultaneously. Make sure to connect to the internet periodically to verify your offline music access.
Recovering Lost iTunes Purchases
If you can’t find a previously purchased song or album in your Apple Music library, there are a couple options for trying to recover it:
First, check if you have iTunes Match enabled. This is a subscription service that matches the songs in your library with iTunes’ extensive catalog. Any eligible tracks get upgraded to high-quality 256kbps DRM-free versions that you can download and listen to anytime (source). So if you’ve lost an old lower-quality purchase, iTunes Match may be able to replace it with a better version you can re-download.
If iTunes Match doesn’t work, you can contact Apple Support directly about missing purchases. They will work with you to investigate what happened and attempt to restore any content you rightfully own. Provide them with any details you have like purchase dates, original IDs, email receipts etc. This process can be tedious but Apple does aim to make customers whole again when issues arise (source).
While there’s no guaranteed way to recover lost iTunes purchases, these two options provide your best chance according to Apple’s policies and procedures. Contact support as soon as you notice anything missing.
Alternative Ways to Listen to Purchases
If you want options for listening to your purchased iTunes music beyond Apple Music, there are a few alternatives worth considering:
You can access your purchased songs on other devices by downloading them through the iTunes app on Windows or syncing them to an iPod. This allows you to listen on devices not linked to your Apple ID. Just keep in mind downloaded songs have a limited number of authorized devices.
Another option is using a third-party app like Audius to play purchased music files on your iPhone or iPad without an Apple Music subscription. The app lets you import music from iTunes and listen offline.
For streaming, you can upload your purchased iTunes music to a service like Google Play Music or Amazon Music. This gives you access to your library for streaming across various devices. Just be aware of each streaming service’s upload limits.
Overall, with a bit of effort, you can access your purchased songs for listening even without an active Apple Music subscription. The key is using alternative apps and services that fit your preferences.
Keeping Your Music Purchases Safe
It’s important to keep backups of your purchased music to avoid losing access in case of hardware failure, accidental deletion, or other unforeseen issues. Here are some strategies to keep your music purchases safe:
Enable automatic backups of your devices to iCloud or iTunes. This will securely store copies of your purchased music online. You can restore from these backups if needed. See Apple’s support article for instructions.
Periodically sync your iOS devices to iTunes on a computer. iTunes will save a copy of your purchased content locally. This provides an additional backup if iCloud backups become unavailable.
Use a third party app like iMazing to export and save your purchased music library. This provides a redundant backup not reliant on Apple’s ecosystem.
Avoid uninstalling Apple Music or signing out of your Apple ID on devices. This can make purchased content temporarily disappear. Always maintain an active subscription and signed in account for continual access.
Check your purchase history periodically in your account settings. This lets you confirm past purchases are still accessible within your library and redownload if needed.
With multiple backup options and by avoiding common issues that can make purchases seem lost, you can feel confident your purchased music library will remain safe and available even in unlikely worst-case scenarios.