Help me understand this icloud

[GIZBUG]

So I created a library on my home windows pc, and moved all my music into the library. Went through the itunes match, and all the songs are in in the cloud now. On my iphone, I have to download the songs from the cloud, in order to listen to them on the phone. When I am done with a song on my phone, i can simply delete it from the phone, and its gone (but still i the cloud)

How about my macbook air? I opened it up today, loaded itunes, and noticed all my songs in the cloud. I do not have to download them? I can stream music to my laptop? If this is the case, it will save me a lot of space on my HD

 

[Bear]

First of all you want to keep your library intact on the windows pc as iCloud is not a backup service, although in essence, it functions as one.

For your iPhone, that is correct you can delete it from the phone when you want to make room for other songs,

That same is true of your laptop. iTunes Match is not a streaming service, it actually downloads the music to play. but like the iPhone you can delete if off the laptop when you no longer want it there.

If you're at home, you can use iTunes shared libraries to stream from your pc to your laptop.

 

[GIZBUG]

First of all you want to keep your library intact on the windows pc as iCloud is not a backup service, although in essence, it functions as one.

For your iPhone, that is correct you can delete it from the phone when you want to make room for other songs,

That same is true of your laptop. iTunes Match is not a streaming service, it actually downloads the music to play. but like the iPhone you can delete if off the laptop when you no longer want it there.

If you're at home, you can use iTunes shared libraries to stream from your pc to your laptop.

Well Ive played 4 songs on my laptop, and the icon is still next to them giving me the option to download. So it does seem like it is streaming the songs.