iOS 8.4 iTunes Match, stream or download?

Here you'll find a very helpful comparison of the two services: http://www.macworld.com/article/2943703/how-itunes-match-and-apple-music-work-to gether.html

That is its purpose: to get everything in iCloud, deleting it from devices and saving up space.

When you listen to a song you're streaming it from iCloud, the song is not on your device.

I use iTunes Match and have exactly 0 songs on my device, I only have 4 (ringtones).

Another question answered without my having to ask, but, having stripped all the music from my iPhone, I turned on iCloud Music and 'streamed' 8 songs and, though these songs are visible neither when I order the app to show only Music Available Offline nor in iTunes (the phone's connected), there are 10 songs listed in iPhone->Settings->About. Manage Storage doesn't even list Music, so these 10 songs are obviously not taking up space, so, what's that all about? Why 10, instead of the 8 I played? I know the number was one before I started this little experiment.

Lastly, for now, anyway, is there any way to download songs from iCloud Music to my phone? or would I need to do it in iTunes?

Those 8 streamed songs shouldn't be stored on your phone just because you streamed them.

Once Match is active and everything is in iCloud (unless you manually download songs) streaming them will not put them on your device.

Check again in Storage and if you spot Music go to it and delete everything.

Check again in iTunes in the iPhone page On My Device section if there's anything in Music repeat the above.

I think it was temporary, the About isn't very reliable in my experience, what's reliable is Storage and iTunes. If there's nothing there then there's nothing.

Or they're ringtones, ringtones are stored locally on your device, always no matter what.

Check Tones just below Music in iTunes, if those 10 songs are ringtones...

Side note: ongs purchased from iTunes Store and matched in iCloud also stay on your device, because you purchased hence downloaded them on your device, unless you remember to go to Storage and delete Music.

And yes you can download songs from iCloud on iPhone, whichever song you're "on" in a list, there's 3 dots --- on the right, tap and choose Make Available Offline. That will download the song locally so that you don't stream it but store it.

iTunes Match relates to the music you own and was uploaded to iCloud upon subscribing to iTunes Match. You can stream or download

music to your device but only what you own obviously. Thus, it's a service primarily focused on storing you music library. Apple Music

is a different service focus on streaming music that you don't own and will never really own unless you purchase it separately one day.

The new Apple Music is "Rental platform" so should you ever cancel, you music library is what it was prior to subscribing to that service.

So iTunes Match let's you stream or download, it's just using new terminology to download called "Make available off-line"

One thing that is well known about iTunes Match is that it very often encounters errors, doesn't work, doesn't update, etc. Wait it out, I'm sure they'll fix it. Even more so if they say it flat out...

When you stream it does actually download it to the device but still shows up as being in the cloud. Consequently when I'm on the tube (or anywhere else with no connection) I can still play the latest stuff I've streamed as well as stuff I've downloaded to the device.

iTunes Match is brilliant when it works, each IOS upgrade ***** it up in some way though, the latest update, 8.4, doesn't show the download button so you can't pre-download albums before entering a no connection zone.

I've a feeling that Apple are going to put more emphasis on Apple Music, if this turns out to be to the detriment of Match then I shall cancel.

Maybe your not understanding iTunes Match correctly. It is a download based streaming service as opposed to the new Apple Music which is entirely stream based meaning no cache or memory is used whatsoever. I can understand that you may not see any music data under the manage data area of settings. But that other area in settings known as "About" is there for a reason. I'm guessing you will see a large number under the "songs" portion of that About category. Those are all the songs being held in cache memory from iTunes match downloads. It just appears as if you've been streaming them. I can assure you, I tested this out on iPads and iPhones. Its tricky as all items in settings and such appear as if the music isn't being stored. Not that I advise this, but if you reset your entire device and started over by loading what was previously there excluding music, there would be a big difference in memory. Technical definition:

Match's "streaming" is entirely downloading-based: As such, when you "stream" a song from iTunes Match, you're downloading a cache to your device and filling its space.

Before Apple Music was released songs definitely got downloaded to your iDevice when using iTunes Match. iTunes Match was never intended as a streaming service and thus never worked as such. The option that is now in Apple Music ('Make available offline') is what the old iTunes Match used to be.

My question would be: if I decide to ditch Apple Music after three months (which I might) and return to iTunes Match, will it return to download-based music listening?

having upgraded to 8.4 on day 1, iTunes Match was already streaming, rather than downloading, even before starting my Apple Music trial.