iCloud - Download only, or stream too?

[m021478]

Does iCloud allow me access to all of the music and TV shows I've purchase on iTunes for download only, or for streaming too?

If I want to listen to Michael Jackson's Thriller for example, I can fire up Spotify and be listening to any track I want within a couple seconds. Using iCloud (assuming I've purchased that album and it's not currently stored on my device), I would first have to download the entire album, which could take 10-20min depending on 3G or WiFi speeds, then I could play it.


Seems like a deal-breaker if I have to download it before I can access it.

Is this right?

 

[rWally]

Does iCloud allow me access to all of the music and TV shows I've purchase on iTunes for download only, or for streaming too?

If I want to listen to Michael Jackson's Thriller for example, I can fire up Spotify and be listening to any track I want within a couple seconds. Using iCloud (assuming I've purchased that album and it's not currently stored on my device), I would first have to download the entire album, which could take 10-20min depending on 3G or WiFi speeds, then I could play it.


Seems like a deal-breaker if I have to download it before I can access it.

Is this right?

Wrong. It will stream your songs but match is for music only so your tv shows are not stored in the cloud.

 

[m021478]

Wrong. It will stream your songs but match is for music only so your tv shows are not stored in the cloud.

How am I supposed to get it to stream. All I can figure out is that clicking the cloud icons begins downloading the track. Tapping on the track name simply plays the 30-90 second preview for a song, but not the whole song. Do I play it back from the iTunes.app, or do I have to initiate download from the iTunes.app, then switch over to the Music.app to play it back.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

 

[rWally]

How am I supposed to get it to stream. All I can figure out is that clicking the cloud icons begins downloading the track. Tapping on the track name simply plays the 30-90 second preview for a song, but not the whole song. Do I play it back from the iTunes.app, or do I have to initiate download from the iTunes.app, then switch over to the Music.app to play it back.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

It actually does both. My song starts playing as soon as I click/tap on it. So it streams as it downloads and then you're left with a copy on your device after the song plays. You can simply swipe across to delete it if you don't want a copy remaining on your hard drive.

I'm not sure why it wouldn't play the whole song for you. That's very strange.

 

[m021478]

When you say "My song starts playing as soon as I click/tap on it"... I think what's actually being played for you is the short 30-90 second preview of the song, but not the entire song?

When you say click/tap on it, do you mean the cloud icon, or the track name? As far as I can tell, clicking the track name plays the track preview, and clicking the cloud icon begins the track downloading...

 

[rWally]

When you say "My song starts playing as soon as I click/tap on it"... I think what's actually being played for you is the short 30-90 second preview of the song, but not the entire song?

When you say click/tap on it, do you mean the cloud icon, or the track name? As far as I can tell, clicking the track name plays the track preview, and clicking the cloud icon begins the track downloading...

I actually just shuffled a playlist so I wasn't clicking on individual songs. I'll try again here and let you know what happens for me.

edit: So I just played a random song on my iphone from the cloud and it played the whole way through immediately when I tapped on it. I had a fully downloaded version of the song after it was done playing. At that point I could swipe and delete or just leave it. When I 'delete' it the icloud icon just comes back so you can easily play it again if you want.