Apple’s iTunes Match service finally launches in Japan

Apple has launched its iTunes Match service in Japan, where it costs ¥3,980 per year (or roughly $40), as MacRumors reports. The service, which replicates a user’s music collection on iTunes with high-quality versions in iCloud and makes them available to play across any device, was first launched in 2011 and costs $25 per year in the US. Apple expanded it across twelve additional markets in Asia in the summer of 2012, but Japan was left off that list, until now.

After a nearly two-and-a-half year wait, Apple’s iTunes Match has hit the shores of Japan, bringing cloud-based library matching to one of the few countries where users can purchase music through iTunes but not sign up for the service.  With the latest expansion of services, Apple has iTunes Match operating in some 116 countries, according to the company’s iTunes availability webpage. Like its U.S. counterpart, the Japanese iTunes Match allows users to match songs in their music library, including media from CD rips and other sources, with high resolution versions from iTunes. Up to 25,000 tracks can be stored in iCloud — more if songs are purchased through iTunes — and users can access them from any connected device.