iTunes in iCloud instead of external hard drive?

[naylore]

Are there any indications that iTunes will be able to be stored in iCloud once it launches? Right now my iTunes library is too big for my internal hard drive, so I keep it on an external hard drive. I'm hoping that one day I can keep my iTunes library in iCloud instead of on the hard drive. It's a little cumbersome to have to connect my external hard drive to my MBP every time I want to listen to music in my library or even just browse the store.

I'd just prefer to be able to open iTunes on my macbook without keeping any of my content stored on a hard drive, internal or external. Do you think iCloud will soon make this a possibility?

 

[soco]

It's already stored in the cloud in the sense that if you need to re-download iTunes purchases to your iDevice, it comes from their servers to your device.

As far as your personal iTunes items are concerned, it seems useless to store them on iCloud given that you don't want to be streaming them, and as I said, can just download them to your device if need be.

I do, however, see the desire for non-iTunes purchases to be on the cloud as well, but the indication is, instead, that Apple wants you to iTunes Match them as opposed to storing them on their cloud.

 

[Bear]

...
I'd just prefer to be able to open iTunes on my macbook without keeping any of my content stored on a hard drive, internal or external. Do you think iCloud will soon make this a possibility?

From what Apple has said iTunes Match is not streaming service, so this won't be possible.

...
I do, however, see the desire for non-iTunes purchases to be on the cloud as well, but the indication is, instead, that Apple wants you to iTunes Match them as opposed to storing them on their cloud.

iTunes Match is part of iCloud. Remember what ever doesn't get matched you can upload. This gives you access to download any of your music to any of your systems and devices. It's just that what is matched is at 256K AAC instead of whatever format you had them in.

 

[naylore]

Okay... So if I keep my iTunes library on, say, an iMac, but I wanted the same music on my Air, I could redownload it to it? My music would fit, it's the movies that take up so much space in my library... And movies aren't a part of iCloud at the moment.

That would be a nice solution. But will I be able to keep only a part of my iTunes library stored on my Air? If I wanted just the music on it and the entire library on another computer?

 

[maclaptop]

Due to its age and my desire for lots of variety, my library via iTunes is far too large to store on a single computer. I wouldn't want to either. Instead I have it residing on my high capacity NAS home network. Only I have access which keeps it safe, secure, and out of any cloud.

I know its fashionable to put ones data in the cloud, but I only use cloud services for generic files.