New iTunes in the Cloud features in iOS 7

[kruzeing]

Hello all, I've been a forum member to several different Apple-centric forums for years, and a MacRumors reader for a long time, and I finally decided to join this forum. Something I've noticed in iOS 7 since the first couple betas, are the new iTunes in the Cloud features. If you are an iTunes Match Member you can now stream your music in the music.app instead of downloading it, which is also the same in the videos.app. In the music.app there is still a cloud icon with a download arrow next to songs, but if you simply tap on the song name it will stream instead of downloading. In the videos.app you will see all your purchased content now, and when you tap on a Movie there will be a description as well as the same cloud download logo, but there is also a play button. You can just tap on the play button and it will stream the video to your iOS Device. I've really been hoping for this feature for a while and I'm glad they've implemented it. It's almost like Netflix but for your iTunes Movie and Televison. collection. Now you can bring your whole video library with you everywhere without compromising storage space.

 

[Gjwilly]

... If you are an iTunes Match Member you can now stream your music in the music.app instead of downloading it, which is also the same in the videos.app. In the music.app there is still a cloud icon with a download arrow next to songs, but if you simply tap on the song name it will stream instead of downloading.

iOS6 already does this.

 

[kruzeing]

iOS6 already does this.

No, you have to download the media in iOS 6.

 

[Gav2k]

No, you have to download the media in iOS 6.

You really don't!

 

[Gjwilly]

No, you have to download the media in iOS 6.

No you really don't.
Sitting here with an iPhone 5 on iOS6 and I'm streaming.
Same Cloud download icon and everything.
NOTHING is actually on my phone.

 

[charlituna]

No you really don't.
Sitting here with an iPhone 5 on iOS6 and I'm streaming.
Same Cloud download icon and everything.
NOTHING is actually on my phone.

perhaps not on the iphone 5 but on my 4s and my iPad, both running ios 6, yes they download the media. and it stays. Sure the videos can play while this is happening but it is downloaded. At least for standard videos. Music Videos might play by the music rules.

What is changing in ios 7 is that it is a true buffering system and dumps when over as a standard stream does (or is supposed to). Plus it shows you the same 'in the cloud' view that iTunes 11 has

 

[Gjwilly]

I've used it on my old iPhone 4, my wife's 4S, and my wife's iPad and none of them retain the music after playing unless you actually click the cloud icon indicating that you want to download and keep the song.
Simply clicking the song title plays the song but doesn't keep it in the library.

 

[kruzeing]

What is changing in ios 7 is that it is a true buffering system and dumps when over as a standard stream does (or is supposed to). Plus it shows you the same 'in the cloud' view that iTunes 11 has

Exactly

Go into Settings > General and see if there is a number next to songs. If you are streaming it should read 0.

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

I just tried this on iPhone 5 and iOS 6 and it downloaded the song despite just clicking on the title and not the cloud. I tested it by stopping the song and then going into Airplane mode and the song was one of the ones that I could now play offline. Therefore, it downloaded.

 

[Gjwilly]

I just tried this on iPhone 5 and iOS 6 and it downloaded the song despite just clicking on the title and not the cloud. I tested it by stopping the song and then going into Airplane mode and the song was one of the ones that I could now play offline. Therefore, it downloaded.

Streaming is the same as downloading in that the song has to be cached somewhere on the physical device in order to prevent buffering and a generally unsatisfying user experience.
The difference is whether the song actually stays on the device permanently, until manually deleted, and gets added to the library so that the download never has to be repeated.

 

[Defender2010]

It does not stream it caches the songs....the song count in settings-about, also increases. Same in iOS 6. Many threads discussing this here, try a search!