iOS6.1 and Matchplay

The new iOS6.1 allows all your songs to show and stream through the idrive interface. You no longer have to have the songs on the memory of the iPhone.

This is awesome news! I've been waiting for this. Thanks for letting us know!

How does this work then? Are the songs transferred to iDrive hard disk?

Originally Posted by 73henny

How does this work then? Are the songs transferred to iDrive hard disk?

When you use matchplay for $25 a year, it scans your iTunes database, flags songs already in the iTunes store (whether bought or ripped) and puts them your library in the cloud. For songs not in the store like custom tracks (my son is a musician and makes his own music) it uploads them. You end up with your library including playlists in the cloud. Then you enable matchplay on your iOS devices and sign in with your apple id and it looks like your entire library and playlists are on your device. To finally answer your question, songs are streamed to the device. Selections play almost instantaneously. You would think they are on the phone. This has worked really well for me for the gym etc. but until the latest update, only songs actually on the device would be recognized by the BMW interface. The only thing to make you aware of is that there is a data transfer, so if you have a limited per month data plan this could be an issue. However, each song is on average 5mb so it should take a lot to hit 2gb per month. Lastly, I use wifi when available (gym, home, work, etc) so it is not an issue.