Apple Music Cancelling Apple Music subscription - is my own music safe?

[globalist]

So before I subscribed to Apple Music I already had a sizeable iTunes library on my PC, which I believe had already been uploaded/matched in iCloud (hope I'm getting this part correct).

Now I need to cancel my AM subscription but I've read I need to first download everything to my PC or else you will lose access EVEN to the music files that were mine to begin with?

Can anyone confirm how this works, exactly?

Many thanks!

 

[MJ22]

I had it and cancelled and have AM again. I didn’t lose any songs I had paid for. (When I add a song now, I also purchase it through iTunes so my library is my library).

 

[Slippery Gimp]

This took my brain ages to work out back in the day! I have iTunes Match, which uploaded all my own purchased/owned music into iCloud before I had Apple Music. I still use iTunes Match, so even though I currently don't subscribe to Apple Music I can still open the Music app and access my own library of music. I think if I was to cancel iTunes Match then I would have to download all my music back to my Mac before the subscription period ended, otherwise I think it would vanish into the ether. Someone might know better than me though, but that's my understanding.

 

[interbear]

This thread may help answer a concern of mine.

Current situation - Apple Music family subscriber for years. I also have many albums purchased through iTunes that I also access via Apple Music.

Future situation - I'm trialling Spotify Premium and considering switching to it for 2 reasons - (1) my car has Spotify built in (not Carplay) and (2) my home HiFi supports Spotify Connect as well as Airplay and, to my ears, Spotify Connect is a little better than Apple Music via Airplay. When they upgrade this to Spotify HiFi, should be even better.

My question - if I cancel my Apple Music subscription, how do I access my music purchased via iTunes. Can I still simply access it via Apple Music as I do today, but only my purchases will show up in the library? Or, do I need to find a way to transfer it over to Spotify?