Let me see if I can clear this up.
All the actual music is on a Netgear server in storage back in the US. I’m traveling.
But I had uploaded the library metadata to Apple back when it was still attached and paid to subscribe to their matching service. Like $25 a year. They were successful in matching 40% or so of my library.
So without the server, the only thing I could actually play were the matched tunes.
Everything is all intact. The whole library, the playlists, and the matched tunes present in Apple’s collection.
The difference is it was all present upon launch in iTunes. It would just report the actual mp3 music file could not be found for the unmatched songs…
In the new app, all the libraries are new and separate: Music, Video, Podcasts.
Upon launch of the new Music App, my library was empty. The titles of my playlists were visible but the playlists themselves were empty. Zero song, no metadata, just playlist names in the sidebar.
To make it visible however, I had to subscribe. Or sign up for the trial.
Then it looked just like iTunes, the library and playlists intact, but only able to play the matched tunes.
So in the conversion, Apple preserved everything perfectly, but made it all a part of Apple Music.
Perhaps it would be different if I still had the library with the actual songs attached to my computer. Perhaps the library metadata will remain after I cancel Apple Music. Certainly I expect the matched tunes to go away after canceling.
There was no documentation. It’s still beta. But that old service of Apple taking your library and matching it is apparently no longer available as a separate service.
It’s built into Apple Music.
No bugs, no complaints. Although I was pretty panicked after it loaded the Catalina beta to find everything gone.
I did file a bug report because the library metadata should not be dependent upon subscribing to Apple Music, even if subscribing for 90 days was free. And maybe this is only affecting someone coming over from iTunes?
I’m just pretty happy with Spotify. And since I don’t have the music server with me, it is easier to just use Spotify instead of the Apple Music app.
i need to read some reviews of Apple Music versus Spotify.
I have very little knowledge of Apple Music so not in a position to offer an opinion.