How does iTunes/Music app handle songs in playlists?

[macguymike]

Not sure which forum to post this in, because it covers multiple devices and applications.

Here's what I'm wondering:

If I have a particular song in more than one playlist in iTunes, when I sync those playlists to my iPhone, does only one copy of the song get copied to the iPhone or does it sync multiple copies for each playlist?

 

[justperry]

Not sure which forum to post this in, because it covers multiple devices and applications.

Here's what I'm wondering:

If I have a particular song in more than one playlist in iTunes, when I sync those playlists to my iPhone, does only one copy of the song get copied to the iPhone or does it sync multiple copies for each playlist?

Only one, and the reason is fairly simple if you think about it, in iTunes you have the main Music Library, if you drag a few of them in a playlist it just makes links there, nothing is copied, if you delete songs from a playlist the songs will still be in the main Music Library.
Same on an iOS device, it copies one song to the main library and links to every playlist it is in.
Reason is also simple, why copy it more than once if a single link is sufficient, this will be mere bytes instead of MBytes.

As a side note: If you have Match on the device and 90% of your songs is recognised do you think it uploads all those songs, no, it just makes links inside your subscription to the actual file in iTunes Music Store, if this wasn't the case it would waste petabytes of storage and electricity and maintenance and so on.

 

[macguymike]

I suspected that was the case (it makes much more sense) but wanted some confirmation.

Thanks!!