The iTunes Match music service has landed in the UK with a bit of a bump, as it looks as though it has suffered from a premature release - something that is never welcome.

Reports came in that iTunes Match had been spotted in a variety of countries outside the US, with the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand all reporting the new service going live. However, despite being allowed to sign up to the service, users were having trouble getting the service to work.

Here at Pocket-lint, we've successfully managed to sign up to the service, however the new menu option that has appeared in our left hand column in iTunes merely takes us through to a screen saying that "Genius has been successfully turned on."

We aren't (at time of writing) able to go any further with the Match service. We are however now able to download previously purchased music that we've bought through iTunes, something that we had not noticed before (we aren't sure if this has already been available, but know that it wasn't at the launch of 10.1).  

And it now seems that Apple is issuing refunds for early adopters, saying that iTunes Match is not available outside of Brazil and the US at the moment.

When it is officially launched the service will bring the ability to match songs from Apple's iTunes Store with songs from a user's collection, meaning your entire collection will be available in the iCloud.

The iTunes Match service should cost £21.99 in the UK and also bring automatic upgrading to a 256Kbps DRM-free file if it finds any of your existing songs match its database. With iTunes Match, songs you’ve imported from all manner of formats, including CDs, can be stored in iCloud. And you can play them on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.

We'll of course keep you posted on any developments.

UPDATE: iTunes Match looks to have now gone fully live in the UK. We are in the process of "matching" our iTunes catalogue. To enjoy the new iTunes Match features, you have to download iTunes 10.5.2.

Have you been able to download iTunes Match yet? Let us know in the comments.