iPhone + iTunes Match, working?

[SamS]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

Oh ok. Seems like a hassle if your idevice had enough room for your music.

Certainly. But I think Match is geared towards those with 10,000+ songs, which won't fit on any iPhone. And Apple's trend is not to overload devices with pricey solid state storage (i.e. 128GB), rather sell a annual subscription iCloud model that has its own set of conveniences.

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by SamS

Certainly. But I think Match is geared towards those with 10,000+ songs, which won't fit on any iPhone. And Apple's trend is not to overload devices with pricey solid state storage (i.e. 128GB), rather sell a annual subscription iCloud model that has its own set of conveniences.

Understood. Just didn't want to waste time with something that I won't need. There are plenty of other things I can focus my attention on with this car.

[Greeney]

It works fine, Just download the playlist or tracks that you want to play to the phone before you get in the car and you're good to go...

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by Greeney

It works fine, Just download the playlist or tracks that you want to play to the phone before you get in the car and you're good to go...

Kinda sounds like it defeats the purpose of it though.

[SamS]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

Kinda sounds like it defeats the purpose of it though.

It works, as expect, in my opinion. You just can't do it from the iDrive. No big hassle to take the phone out and pull down the songs you need.

There are other options. I have a low-powered server at my home that can send any of the 25K songs I have over 3G to my iPhone/car while I'm driving.

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by SamS

It works, as expect, in my opinion. You just can't do it from the iDrive. No big hassle to take the phone out and pull down the songs you need.

There are other options. I have a low-powered server at my home that can send any of the 25K songs I have over 3G to my iPhone/car while I'm driving.

Pretty slick. I'm not as savvy as you.

[eisenb11]

Originally Posted by SamS

It works, as expect, in my opinion. You just can't do it from the iDrive. No big hassle to take the phone out and pull down the songs you need.

There are other options. I have a low-powered server at my home that can send any of the 25K songs I have over 3G to my iPhone/car while I'm driving.

What software are you running to do this? Can it be controlled from the iDrive screen?

I also built a low power home server (60 watts max consumption), this could be something fun to add to it.

[SamS]

Originally Posted by eisenb11

What software are you running to do this? Can it be controlled from the iDrive screen?

I also built a low power home server (60 watts max consumption), this could be something fun to add to it.

I'm using a Mac mini 2011 (11w idle consumption!) for the server, and my music library is managed through Logitech Media Server. I have an app on my phone called iPeng that acts as a remote player (over WiFi/3G) to the LMS.

iDrive control is likely limited. I have driven my car, but only in Europe, so I didn't get to test and play with this remote streaming like I will when I get redelivery. I do it in my current car (not BMW), just fine.

[radiantm3]

I have a feeling iDrive scans for physical audio files on the device and not the xml files that iTunes and the iOS music apps use to display your whole music library. BMW just needs to improve the way they display track info. It also seems like iDrive only updates the list of songs when it starts a new connection to the iPod interface. If I connect my iOS device to iDrive while it's still downloading tracks from Match, the songs don't show up once they are finished downloading. I need to unplug/replug before it shows the new tracks.

[reechar]

iTunes match is not a streaming service. Even when you use it on your iphone not connected to your car, you are still downloading the song before playing. Your bmw will only show the files you have downloaded. If this is a problem, there is a convenient "download all" button located within the music app. This should make your entire library available to your bmw. In the case that your library is too big to fit on your iphone, you should've bought a higher capacity iphone to suit your needs. Otherwise you'll just have to learn to live with only a subset of your library. Did you really want to have to scroll through all your songs just to find something specific?

So what is the point of itunes match? It is definitely not beneficial to most users. However, I personally own multiple computers and it is very beneficial to me. I have 2 different work laptops, a personal laptop, and a desktop not to mention my iphone. Have you ever had the issue of where you had to sync your music collection across different computers? iTunes match syncs all your computers together making your collection available across all your computers. If I get a new song while I'm at work, it is instantly available on all my other computers and phone. It also makes sense to store everything in the cloud, otherwise i'll be using 5x the space having multiple copies of something.

itunes match does offer one great feature that I think works great with my car. a not very well advertised feature of itunes match is that it also features playlist syncing. What this means is on any of my synced computers, I can create a playlist and it will show up on my phone. I have a dedicated playlist called "M3". Whenever I am about to head home from work, or go out on a trip. I quickly hop onto iTunes and grab 10 or so songs that I feel like listening to and throw them into my M3 playlist. When I get into the car, I start up my playlist through idrive and it works great. Let me tell you, creating a playlist is much easier on a computer than it is either on a phone or trying to pick songs over idrive.

[eisenb11]

I think iTunes match would be more useful to the world at large if it were either a streaming service or if the songs would at least download automatically on demand to create the effect of an unlimited capacity device.

To me, this is another case of Apple coming up with a great product that doesn't live up to its potential. Hopefully they move in this direction as the service matures.

[reechar]

if you want a free streaming service use google music. I actually have my itunes match folder synced up with my google music folder. What this accomplishes is that if i'm not at one of my itunes match registered computers...lets say at a friends house, i can open a browser and stream my collection through google music...pretty cool and free.

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by reechar

if you want a free streaming service use google music. I actually have my itunes match folder synced up with my google music folder. What this accomplishes is that if i'm not at one of my itunes match registered computers...lets say at a friends house, i can open a browser and stream my collection through google music...pretty cool and free.

That's a cool idea.

[eisenb11]

Originally Posted by reechar

if you want a free streaming service use google music. I actually have my itunes match folder synced up with my google music folder. What this accomplishes is that if i'm not at one of my itunes match registered computers...lets say at a friends house, i can open a browser and stream my collection through google music...pretty cool and free.

Unfortunately, Google Music doesn't integrate into the iDrive. Guess iPhone + iTunes Match + iDrive is going to have to be a pipe dream for now.

[radiantm3]

Originally Posted by eisenb11

I think iTunes match would be more useful to the world at large if it were either a streaming service or if the songs would at least download automatically on demand to create the effect of an unlimited capacity device.

To me, this is another case of Apple coming up with a great product that doesn't live up to its potential. Hopefully they move in this direction as the service matures.

Songs do download automatically on demand. iDrive just doesn't connect to iOS in a way that allows for that. This is an iDrive issue, not iOS or Match.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by reechar

iTunes match is not a streaming service. Even when you use it on your iphone not connected to your car, you are still downloading the song before playing. Your bmw will only show the files you have downloaded. If this is a problem, there is a convenient "download all" button located within the music app. This should make your entire library available to your bmw. In the case that your library is too big to fit on your iphone, you should've bought a higher capacity iphone to suit your needs. Otherwise you'll just have to learn to live with only a subset of your library. Did you really want to have to scroll through all your songs just to find something specific?

Correct.

I can see iTunes Match becoming part of BMW Apps (6NR) -working the same way as Pandora- in the near future, though.

[Andy001]

Observe match doesn't stream songs on the iPhone. The item downloads them, in order that they become local. During downloading they might be played. After they become local of course chances are they'll are visible to typical BMW car dvd interface.

[eisenb11]

Originally Posted by radiantm3

Songs do download automatically on demand. iDrive just doesn't connect to iOS in a way that allows for that. This is an iDrive issue, not iOS or Match.

iOS will still need to be updated for this. As it is, the iCloud items are not visible to iDrive. This is something that Apple will have to change to allow.

[docsdoc]

ITunes Match working great on my 2012 E93! Just set up my Bluetooth music audio on my iDrive. My iPhone 4S has NO songs pre-loaded, only the iMatch library (over 20,000 songs). So I selected my iPhone from the device list and picked an album on my iMatch list on the iPhone. When I hit "play," the first song on the album downloaded onto the phone and started playing via Bluetooth audio. ALL of the song & album info (except the cover art) came onto the BMW screen. I used the steering wheel controls to go to other songs - there was a slight delay before the song downloaded from the cloud onto the phone, otherwise working perfectly!

[radiantm3]

Originally Posted by docsdoc

ITunes Match working great on my 2012 E93! Just set up my Bluetooth music audio on my iDrive. My iPhone 4S has NO songs pre-loaded, only the iMatch library (over 20,000 songs). So I selected my iPhone from the device list and picked an album on my iMatch list on the iPhone. When I hit "play," the first song on the album downloaded onto the phone and started playing via Bluetooth audio. ALL of the song & album info (except the cover art) came onto the BMW screen. I used the steering wheel controls to go to other songs - there was a slight delay before the song downloaded from the cloud onto the phone, otherwise working perfectly!

Via blutooth isn't the same because you can't use idrive to choose different albums, artists or genres.

[docsdoc]

Originally Posted by radiantm3

Via blutooth isn't the same because you can't use idrive to choose different albums, artists or genres.

No, but I can do that on the iPhone more easily than using the iDrive - especially when it's on a windshield mount in easy reach. The sound quality with bluetooth audio is good too.

[eisenb11]

Originally Posted by docsdoc

No, but I can do that on the iPhone more easily than using the iDrive - especially when it's on a windshield mount in easy reach. The sound quality with bluetooth audio is good too.

This thread was about getting it to work in iDrive, though without any workarounds like direct physical interaction with the phone.