How do I exclude items from itunes match?

Question

How do I exclude select items or playlists from itunes match?

Answer 1

The quick answer is that you don't.
However, there are some options, which are all a bit fiddly.
You could split your library, so that songs which you don't want in the cloud are in one library and those that you do want are in another. There are plenty of problems with this method.
You could force the songs to be ineligible for match. The most common way of doing this is to tell iTunes that they are podcasts or audiobooks. That way match will exclude them, but depending on your useage this could be a problem. They won't turn up if you are shuffling music for example.
The method I prefer requires a second library signed up for match. Add your music and then, on the second library delete the songs, selecting to delete them from the cloud. This will not remove the original file from your main library and it will stay there with the iCloud status of "removed". I find that this works very well, but be warned that if you turn match off and on again on the main computer then it will add all those songs to the cloud again, so this isn't a solution if you are likely to turn match off and on regularly.
Other than that, the only option is to wait and hope that Apple add the ability to exclude songs.