iCloud

iTunes does not back-up media like Music/Movies/TV Shows/Podcast or Apps (it will ask you to sync purchased content to iTunes before restoring), and neither does iCloud.

iTunes and iCloud backs up:

• Camera Roll
• Accounts
• App Data
• Tones
• Settings

 

I back up my contacts and calendar but I'd rather iTunes Match stays away from my music. I've got everything backed up wirelessly with another service that I'm much happier with. No offense, but Apple kind of lost my trust in the digital music department with their DRM songs back in the day.

 

I use iTunes. If an app gets removed from the app store, you can't have iCloud install it. But if you've got it backed up to iTunes, you can.

 

Not true. I have apps no longer on the app store that got restored from an iCloud backup.

In any case, even for media (like movies) that aren't backed up to iCloud, you can just retire front he iCloud backup and then re-sync any missing items later from your computer.

There's really no reason NOT to have iCloud backup your phone.

 

Those aren't in the backup. They're just in iTunes and it copies them over again. You can restore from iCloud backup or iTunes backup and it doesn't matter...it will copy the media after the backup-restore is finished.

saving107 is correct that the music and movies are not a part of the backup, no matter where you do it.