Apple Turns on iTunes Match for Apple TV with New 'Music' Section

The same way iOS devices have had the option and no way to subscribe. The software is ready before the service, and this is news?

Because it was not announced for ATV until today?

Now you don't need your computer on to stream music to the ATV - this has not been possible with the ATV2 until now. Seems like news to me.

The best thing about iTunes Match on the AppleTV is it shows that Apple is not afraid to allow the service to stream music without requiring it to also download the music at the same time. While technically it streams to iOS devices just fine, it also downloads the music in the background, preventing you from using it as a stream-only service.

I think it just hints that you may be able to have other things streaming to the ATV (and other devices) "from the cloud" - IE movies and TV shows.

One could only hope.

In other words, endorsed piracy.

Brilliant move by Apple, really.

It is, it allows the record industry to recover revenue from pirated Music long out the door.

I think it just hints that you may be able to have other things streaming to the ATV (and other devices) "from the cloud" - IE movies and TV shows.

One could only hope.

Apple certainly wants to do it, but it's up to the studios, unfortunately. With any luck Steve Jobs taught Tim Cook a thing or two about strongarming suits into doing Apple's bidding.

Big question for me.

It seems from what I am reading that with ATV2 and iTunes Match I can stream music from the cloud. If true thats awesome. My question is, my 2011 MBP has a cruddy 320gb HD, I could then conceivably delete all the music from my MBP and choose music from the cloud to my iPhone 4 right? My HD is full, mostly due to movies (iTunes should send me a thank you card lol) so my thought was when this goes live with movies, like it did with TV shows, I could, essentially, dump all the media from my physical drive and let it all come from the cloud.

Am I understanding correctly?

You could conceivably delete all your content but the danger in that is that there is a clause in iTunes Match that says that Apple will only allow you to re-download your music as long as it is still available in iTunes. If the distributer delists it, you're screwed.

A better decision would be to relocate your iTunes library to an external hard drive, disconnect it and store it in a safe place as insurance. Every now and then, update your physical library on the external as you buy new music.

You wouldn't. But they already have a record of the songs that you purchased through iTunes. You should at least be able to access those from your :apple:TV.

Ah, I get it. But if everything is purchased from iTunes (which I guess would be the case if you had iOS devices but never synced them to a computer) you wouldn't need match. It sounds like they just need to add support for listing purchased songs on the aTV if they don't have it already.

Accessed to music purchased through iTunes store is already available and has no extra charge, Match will only be needed for songs you got elsewhere.