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Apple confirms iCloud won't offer iTunes streaming to iOS

by Mike Schramm Aug 30th 2011 at 5:00PM

The iTunes Match beta opened up to developers yesterday, and in case you were somehow under the impression that it actually offered streaming of music to your iOS device, you're mistaken. Apple has confirmed, because apparently there was confusion, that iTunes Match doesn't stream music. Instead, the $24.99 a year that you will pay for the service means that any music you download from anywhere will get "activated" as purchased in iTunes, and then you can download that music to any iOS device or Mac that you happen to have. That's still an actual file that will need actual space on the hard drive.

Apple says that purchased music can be listened to while it's being downloaded, but it's not like you can have your iPhone full of apps and then still listen to streaming music. In that sense, iTunes Match is more of a sync-ing service than an actual streaming setup.

It's too bad -- I'd much rather have Pandora-like access to my music library from anywhere without having to haul all of those files around on my app-filled iPhone. And while you think that distinction might be the issue of some record company's legal text, it's actually an Apple decision, according to the record companies. Apple apparently wants this music to be tied to iTunes, and thus to actual files on your devices. A streaming service could too easily be brought out to other mediums like browsers (which is where Pandora started, incidentally), and thus separated from Apple devices in general.

That seems sort of selfish on Apple's part -- I would hope the ideal is that I have access to my music on iTunes all the time, not just when I'm on Apple devices. But for now, this is the way it's done. If you pay up for iTunes Match, you still get all of the service's benefits, but you don't get streaming of your files to or from anywhere.

Update: There's some confusion over the word "streaming" here. Streaming, as we're using it, means listening to music without actually downloading it on to your device. This is possible on a Mac with iTunes using the new iTunes Match service (just like it is while sharing a library on Wi-Fi). But it is not possible on an iOS device, even with iTunes Match -- you must download the song to listen to it. You can listen to it while it's downloading, but there will be a file that will take up space on your iOS device.



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The iTunes Match beta opened up to developers yesterday, and in case you were somehow under the impression that it actually offered...
 

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dnyank1

NO NO NO!!!
It's not streaming, its just local caching. you download it, but you can listen to it the second the d/l starts.
so yea.
It downloads it to the device, but if you hit the cloud icon, it won't download it to the library, just to a hidden "cache" folder.

August 31 2011 at 12:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dnyank1's comment
Nola111

Ok, well that's the same way that the Rhapsody app works, which claims to stream to your phone (I'm not talking about the offline storage functionality). So I think we're at the point that Olliebrown mentions below and it's a matter of semantics for what Apple is calling streaming.

August 31 2011 at 2:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nola111

Ok I read some more of the comments and now I see what's up.

August 31 2011 at 11:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nola111

This video, which demos iCloud usage on the iPhone, clearly shows that you CAN stream, so I'm confused! Go to the 50 second mark of this video and watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ShM5jm4sQ

August 31 2011 at 11:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kelmon

While the evidence presented so far shows that it is a streaming service, of sorts, I personally am not interested in a streaming service simply because reasonable data networks are still quite spotty in the UK. The network coverage maps presented by the operators are a load of rubbish and it really is not uncommon for my iPhone to have no data connection, or possibly a crappy GPRS connection. I wouldn't mind so much if I was living out in the sticks but I'm not, and even in a city centre location I can find the connection to be poor. I would only be happy to adopt a streaming service for music when data networks have better coverage and reliability. In the meantime I'd much prefer to have the music stored on the device.

Your own mileage may vary, of course.

August 31 2011 at 8:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Erich Heintz

"A streaming service could too easily be brought out to other mediums like browsers and thus separated from Apple devices in general." -- Huh, what? #explainlikeimfive

August 31 2011 at 8:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bishop

I have been trying to upload my music to iCloud in iTunes but for some strange reason every time i try to do this i loose wi-fi connection...i only loose connection when i try to upload my music to the cloud dose anyone know why this is happening or know how to fix this problem

August 31 2011 at 6:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SWare

That's horrible. Whats the point of "cloud storage" if I still have to download files locally? Apple should be ashamed to even compare this with Amazon Cloud or GoogleMusic, its not even the same thing -- its nothing more like a glorified Dropbox that only works on iSoftware.

August 31 2011 at 4:25 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to SWare's comment
Erich Heintz

Apple hasn't compared it to Amazon or Google offerings. Not once, ever.

August 31 2011 at 8:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Erich Heintz's comment
Shannon Doherty

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

You were saying?

September 01 2011 at 5:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down
Michael Z Rork

Whether it's streaming or not doesn't really matter. You can quickly download any track or album you have on your computer to your iPhone so quickly it might as well be streaming. And if you don't have room, simply delete an album you won't be listening to. (There is now a delete songs function straight from your iPhone!)

August 31 2011 at 1:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alderud

@Mike
"I'd much rather have Pandora-like access to my music library from anywhere without having to haul all of those files around on my app-filled iPhone."
With the notoriously bad 3G network in the US, I can understand why they decided on the "file" approach instead of a streaming service.

"Apple apparently wants this music to be tied to iTunes"
The name is "iTunes Match", so can this really be a surprise?

August 31 2011 at 1:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to alderud's comment
Shannon Doherty

Yes it is, because the "Match" part refers to how the service will match the songs you have with the songs iTunes has in its store. Nothing to do with what's being discussed here.

September 01 2011 at 5:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Olliebrown

No, no no. The story is that the beta version of iTunes match IS, in fact, already streaming. The experience is one that is identical to streaming media. Apple refuses to call it that (and well, it's beta so maybe that's not what will be in the final version) but it IS streaming right now and that's unexpected.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/30/despite-apples-denial-itunes-match-is-streaming/

August 30 2011 at 11:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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