Clarity on Home Sharing for Apple Music/iTunes Match

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DJSimonmurray

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Nov 8, 2015
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Hi,

I was hoping to get some clarity on the ability to share my Apple Music library via the home sharing feature.

At present I have my mac with my main apple ID and Apple Music installed. My entire library is stored in the cloud via iTunes match and I have a lot of uploaded content as a result of this as well as matched files etc.

In addition to the MAC I have an iPhone which is supplied by my work and I am signed in on a sperate Apple I.D as I don’t want to mix business/pleasure. I can however access my cloud based library via the home share feature when I am on the same network.

Q: If the mac was to disappear but my library was to remain in the cloud. (The mac is coming to the end of its life but I probably can’t justify replacing).

If I purchase an Apple IPAD instead and sign it with my main Apple I.D, all things being equal my iCloud music library is there to download, stream etc.

The key question is, can I still then use the home sharing feature from my iPhone that has a different apple I.D in conjunction with the iPad. So in essence we are simply going from mac-phone to iPad-phone.

I was concerned that because the iPad does not necessarily have the music files ‘resident’ (downloaded) to the device like the mac held on is core hard drive that the home sharing feature from the work iPhone may not work/be more complicated?

Just checking I can still use this feature?

Thank you all for your input

Simon.
 

cjmnews

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Home sharing is not related to Apple Music at all. Home Sharing is for your Mac or PC that is hosting an iTunes Library to share that library with other devices in the home network.

Apple Music is streaming music from Apple, not from any other device.

If your Mac were to disappear, then you would be getting all your music from the cloud. New purchases would go there and all devices signed into your Apple ID would be able to access all your music from the cloud.

If you get an iPad, then it would stream like the other devices. It can not Home Share your Apple Music or locally stored library. The iPhone would also need to stream the library from Apple Music once it is logged into your Apple ID.

Also remember that i-devices do occasionally need to be restored, suddenly and without warning (though it seems less often these days, but OS upgrades sometimes cause this to happen). No Mac means no local restore capability. Backups have to be done to iCloud, and you'll need to buy more storage than the 5GB provided. Plus you'll need to ensure that iCloud is syncing your data (messages, photos, etc.) as the backup in iCloud does not contain all the data that a local backup does.

I also don't like the idea of losing my library due to using these services. So I look ahead at when I would cancel these services, and the impact.

Assuming you have a backup of your music pre-Apple Music, then the lack of the Mac means you lose some (maybe all, it is not clear on the DRM status of matched tracks with both iCloud Music Library and Apple Music) of your music if you stop paying for Apple Music.

If there is no backup and we assume that matched tracks do not have DRM because of iCloud Music Library, then you may be able to recover your library by:
  1. Cancelling Apple Music (removes access to all music you didn't own, stops streaming of non-owned tracks)
  2. Download all tracks from iCloud Music Library to a new Mac or PC with Apple Music App/iTunes
  3. Cancel iCloud Music Library
  4. Use Home Sharing to share your iTunes to other devices.
If there is a backup:
  1. Restore it to a new Mac or PC with Apple Music App\\iTunes
  2. Download all new purchases since the backup
  3. Create/update playlists to include new purchases
 

DJSimonmurray

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2015
Messages
54
Points
6
Home sharing is not related to Apple Music at all. Home Sharing is for your Mac or PC that is hosting an iTunes Library to share that library with other devices in the home network.

Apple Music is streaming music from Apple, not from any other device.

If your Mac were to disappear, then you would be getting all your music from the cloud. New purchases would go there and all devices signed into your Apple ID would be able to access all your music from the cloud.

If you get an iPad, then it would stream like the other devices. It can not Home Share your Apple Music or locally stored library. The iPhone would also need to stream the library from Apple Music once it is logged into your Apple ID.

Also remember that i-devices do occasionally need to be restored, suddenly and without warning (though it seems less often these days, but OS upgrades sometimes cause this to happen). No Mac means no local restore capability. Backups have to be done to iCloud, and you'll need to buy more storage than the 5GB provided. Plus you'll need to ensure that iCloud is syncing your data (messages, photos, etc.) as the backup in iCloud does not contain all the data that a local backup does.

I also don't like the idea of losing my library due to using these services. So I look ahead at when I would cancel these services, and the impact.

Assuming you have a backup of your music pre-Apple Music, then the lack of the Mac means you lose some (maybe all, it is not clear on the DRM status of matched tracks with both iCloud Music Library and Apple Music) of your music if you stop paying for Apple Music.

If there is no backup and we assume that matched tracks do not have DRM because of iCloud Music Library, then you may be able to recover your library by:
  1. Cancelling Apple Music (removes access to all music you didn't own, stops streaming of non-owned tracks)
  2. Download all tracks from iCloud Music Library to a new Mac or PC with Apple Music App/iTunes
  3. Cancel iCloud Music Library
  4. Use Home Sharing to share your iTunes to other devices.
If there is a backup:
  1. Restore it to a new Mac or PC with Apple Music App\\iTunes
  2. Download all new purchases since the backup
  3. Create/update playlists to include new purchases
Thank you for your continued help, it is very much appreciated

Simon.
 
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