Apple have finally made iTunes Match available to users in the UK and Europe a full month after it launched in the US.

iTunes Match enables you to import your tracks to iTunes and have them matched to the version on iTunes. This ensures that the songs tags are all present and correct, but more importantly it will upgrade your song to a high-quality version.

If the version of the song you have is less than 256kbps iTunes Match will replace it with a higher quality version. This assumes the song is actually already on iTunes, but the library is pretty comprehensive so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

So far so good but the downside is that the iTunes Match service costs £21.99 a year. Essentially, Apple are making you pay for music you already own which on first impressions seems like a rip-off.

However, when you think about what Apple is doing here its a very smart move from the company. Essentially, anyone who has downloaded music can import it into iTunes and make it "legitimate and legal".

3G wonders whether Apple might be criticised for essentially encouraging people to download illegal files and then convert them using iTunes Match.

We wouldn't be surprised to see the record labels taking action against Apple in the future. However,  if they get a decent share of the revenue they might consider it a way to get back money they may never have seen otherwise.

Those interested in purchasing an iTunes Match subscription can do so by opening iTunes and going to "Store > Turn on iTunes Match". Currently, you need to subscribe using the desktop version.