How do I stream music from iCloud?

iTunes match will be your first option. That isn't streaming as it is downloaded to your device once it starts playing. I don't know if there is an app that allows you to use google music with the iPad but you might want to check that out.

The long of the short is that Apple doesn't support streaming with iCloud

Interestingly enough, streaming from iCloud is only not supported in iOS (iPad, iPhone). When I use iTunes match on my MBA, I can actually stream the songs.
I have no copy of my music files on my MBA, it only shows me what is in the iCloud. Once I click on it, the song starts playing, but no permanent copy of the song appears on my MBA. It stays in the cloud. I have to explicitly download the song for it to appear on my HDD.

I think it's weird they don't allow that on the iPad, since the songs wouldn't start to take up space on the device. It works fine on the MBA.

Coltaine said:

I think it's weird they don't allow that on the iPad, since the songs wouldn't start to take up space on the device. It works fine on the MBA.

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Apparently iOS actually deletes older files after they've been downloaded to preserve space. But I do agree that it's weird that iTunes on a PC/Mac streams them while iOS devices download them.

HazyCloud said:

Apparently iOS actually deletes older files after they've been downloaded to preserve space. But I do agree that it's weird that iTunes on a PC/Mac streams them while iOS devices download them.

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True.
But does anyone know the algorithm?
When are the files deleted?

HazyCloud said:

Apparently iOS actually deletes older files after they've been downloaded to preserve space. But I do agree that it's weird that iTunes on a PC/Mac streams them while iOS devices download them.

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I think Apple probably had to make a choice here--

Knowing the way the media (and Apple users/haters) like to blow things WAY out of proportion, Apple was probably trying to avoid the problem of using up your data plan so that they would not invetably be blamed for it. If I listen to a song 10 times on my computer, I'm probably on my home internet, or on my work computer. No problem. Stream away. If I'm on my iPhone or iPad, I'm probably on a data plan.

If I'm on my iPhone or iPad and listen to a song 10 times, that could take up 100 MB or so of my data plan if I stream it every time. Why not just keep it on there until I delete it?

I did not know that it automatically deletes the older files on its own. That's good to know. Can anyone confirm that's actually true?

Good point, Spider. I didn't even think of that. FWIW, I read about iTM deleting songs on Macworld. I probably couldn't even find the link if I tried.

It would be a great feature if Apple allowed the user to determine how much of the devices memory is used for downloaded music when using iTunes Match...I have 5GB empty on my iPhone before any songs have actually been downloaded, so it would be great to allow different amounts, 1GB, 2GB etc as maximum music storage, so one could actually keep track of space without thinking about it too much.