Despite Apple's Denial, iTunes Match is Streaming

[dethmaShine]

Basically what we have here is Apple redefining "streaming".

Perhaps this is part of/the beginning of that "new technology" Apple is working on ?

Go ahead. Give me them -1

This is nothing new; but a good implementation of streaming that Apple provides in this case.

What apple is doing is the following:

- click on song to play
- first few seconds of the song cached
- play starts
- rest of the song starts downloading

This is a common practice for software/web developers in the industry who have constrained OR non-reliable networks. I remember doing a IInd year project for a wireless headphone system where I would cache the first 15 seconds of the transmission and then download the remaining song. It gives an impression of streaming; but basically revolves around cache-play-download scheme.

Apple was smart to get a patent out of it. I was not.

 

[AppleFan1984]

So how do you take you music outside of wifi and cell range?

 

[Carouser]

So how do you take you music outside of wifi and cell range?

It will be stored on your device, if you want.

 

[marksman]

Apple takes their time to do it right.

Is it surprising that their "streaming" implementation is better than anyone else's? No.

 

[a.gomez]

I'm still confused.

basically if you "stream" you only using a small amount of memory at a time to buffer a song as it streams down (lets say 10 sec at a time) and it is used to compensate for network fluctuations

what Apple is doing is downloading the entire song into a cache - so if your song is 4 MEGS you will need that space for the song

Not sure how this will work - if you listen to an entire playlist will it delete each song before the next one starts? or will it keep it for a time.

 

[larrybeo]

Spotify App Does This

The Spotify app does this as well. It allows for greater control over what songs are available offline and which ones are not. I like it.

----------

Apple takes their time to do it right.

Is it surprising that their "streaming" implementation is better than anyone else's? No.

This is old. Spotify does this. Check Spotify app out.

 

[rjohnstone]

The issue here is Apple does not have a "streaming" agreement with any of the record labels.
A "cached" copy of a streamed file is not the same as a downloaded copy.

Apple's license agreement was for storing the music for future download, not for streaming.

Yes, it's all technicalities, but I would love to see what the contracts say about this delivery method.

 

[djon41]

I believe I understand the whole "downloading while listening, but only to a cache file that isn't kept around" thing. However, one question is: can I tap a song to begin the "download-streaming (streamloading?)" and then subsequently tap the cloud icon to have it also actually download to the device library?

This would ideally simply move the cache file into the library upon finishing the download, as opposed to two simultaneous downloads of the same song, of course.

 

[tipp]

This is nothing new; but a good implementation of streaming that Apple provides in this case...

Apple was smart to get a patent out of it. I was not.

What Apple is doing and you did, as you said, are not new and either not patentable or the patent has expired. Apple patented putting a small piece of the beginning of each song on the user's device prior to the user requesting it, giving the impression of immediate streaming. It doesn't look like what's happening here.

Now, there could be something really interesting happening where a device starts automatically downloading these little beginning snippets in the background as soon as you navigate to an album listing, but that hasn't been claimed. This would be similar to how the Reeder (RSS) app can preload its webview before and regardless of whether you request to see it or not. It gives a convincing feeling of instantaneous loading.

Also, caching = downloading. There is no "cache the beginning, then download the rest." The cache you're thinking of is just the requested buffer time to keep the download ahead of the playhead position, which can be set manually or calculated with a very fast bandwidth test.

 

[Sedrick]

still see no point in the whole thing besides making legal files out of your pirated tunes. i dont think i can be bothered downloading a song/whole album while i'm outside, i might as well just put it on while i'm still at home. people sure can't be that lazy? the fact that u can now even sync wireless makes it even less exciting imo. and dont start the whole "but it saves space" well it doesnt as u apparently have to download it anyway. such a weird idea

i only find it useful for when i want to hear a single random song i want to hear desperately thats not on my iPhone/iPad ... oh wait i cant bc i dont own it and therefore cant listen to it anyway ...

Bolded for emphasis. You said it brother. I really don't get it. "Oh, Apple's 'streaming' is so much better!". Please. One song at a time? You'll be glued to your device the whole time just to keep clicking on individual songs to 'stream' them. Cripes, just sync with iTunes and be done with it.

This seems to fall right in with "Apple made it, so it must be great" mentality. Spotify has this beat 6 ways from Sunday for actual streaming content: What you have and what you don't.

 

[Lvivske]

The "no streaming" angle makes sense, Apple makes more money selling devices with more GB's of local storage.

those GBs can now be used for downloading other media, and people are now paying $ to get this function of extra space

not to mention, this means apple wont have to release devices in higher GB, and thus costs can go down year over year

 

[milo]

One song at a time?

Nope, doesn't look like it.

People have posted that you can play entire playlists via streaming, anyone care to confirm that?

 

[Popeye206]

Not streaming.

I checked my usage- Under music I had used 680mb- Did not sync any music to my ipad only "streame" so it does download the file.

itunes match is pretty sweet for my apple eco system (ipad, mbp)

It only read 700 of my 3011 tracks

Are most of the 2300 tracks it didn't read on iTunes? Is the metadata accurate on them or generic MP3 with only the song to match to? Just curious...

Although, I'm guessing whatever logic they are using will improve. They need something like what's used on YouTube - which I hate, because it even has stripped soundtracks where a song is playing in the background and it recognizes that it's a copyrighted song. But the point is, it seems to be very good at matching sound patterns to music.

 

[a.gomez]

im more than happy on Google Music Beta.

you can stream, or download the song onto your phone. you know, choices.

oh and its free (up to 20,000 songs)

i have about 8 Google music invites so if anyone is interested pm me.

it even transcodes your lossless files to 320kbps. (i'm sure premium users will have more options in the future)

Yeah, I tried it as well... I'm Using Amazon now thou, I got a year for free and now it is Unlimited space - I share it with my Girl now that it is unlimited

I needed one of these solutions because I freelance a ton and do not always work on the same studio/station - just open a browser and I have everything no matter where I sit at work

 

[JHankwitz]

oh noes

i want streaming, downloading and listening offline is so ancient and low tech

Why? To what possible advantage?

 

[Navdakilla]

can we just get ios5 already? haha

either way (streaming or not), icloud for music is amazing

 

[danuff]

Who cares???

As long as I can listen to music on the go, who cares with how it works???

 

[tipp]

The issue here is Apple does not have a "streaming" agreement with any of the record labels.
A "cached" copy of a streamed file is not the same as a downloaded copy.

Apple's license agreement was for storing the music for future download, not for streaming.

Yes, it's all technicalities, but I would love to see what the contracts say about this delivery method.

Did you even read the article you're posting on? Apparently not. From the article itself:

As noted by AllThingsD, the reason for Apple's implementation appears to not be due to any lack of a license for full-fledged streaming.

 

[arn]

This would ideally simply move the cache file into the library upon finishing the download, as opposed to two simultaneous downloads of the same song, of course.

Yep. this is how it works.

http://twitter.com/#!/insanely_great/status/108598213291933696

arn

 

[milo]

Are most of the 2300 tracks it didn't read on iTunes? Is the metadata accurate on them or generic MP3 with only the song to match to? Just curious...

Good question. Also, can you tell it to attempt matching again, and if so is it the full library or can you do specific songs or albums? It would be interesting to see if unmatched songs could get "fixed" and see what specifically (different metadata) got a song to work. And hopefully there will be drastic improvements in the matching, this service is very interesting to me but only if the rate of matching is very high. Maybe the beta will include some improvements on the server side and they'll send out announcements to testers to run the match again?

 

[roland.g]

It doesn't actually support playlists from what I understand. So instead of being able to access a playlist from my library, I would have access to a track. And when that track ends I can't even have another lined up. I have to manually choose track 2 when track 1 ends. Same with whole albums I suppose. Who listens track by track.

The only use I can see for this is either playing a one-off track for yourself or someone out of the blue because you don't have it OR downloading with the cloud icon multiple tracks you didn't have to then create a playlist from on your device. But it isn't a solution for wanting to grab a playlist or album from your library that simply isn't synced.

I am going to miss the MobileMe Gallery next June and many other legacy .Mac/MobileMe features that are evaporating with the cloud.

 

[milo]

It doesn't actually support playlists from what I understand.

Have you actually used it or is this your speculation? If it's the latter, hopefully someone who has used the beta can explain.

 

[louis Fashion]

I don't get it

I don't get it and I don't want it. My music is loaded on my iPod, my phone, my computer. Why do I need all this......? and I am NOT going to pay the carriers for more data, THAT IS for certain.

 

[SirHaakon]

I have to manually choose track 2 when track 1 ends. Same with whole albums I suppose.

I don't think you're supposing correctly... that wouldn't make any sense.

 

[arn]

It doesn't actually support playlists from what I understand.

You are mistaken. It supports your iTunes playlists on your iPhone/iPod/iPad.

arn