To be quite honest, I have no idea how this hasn’t gotten more attention, but iOS 6 beta has just turned iTunes Match into a real streaming music service. It was disappointing to find out that Apple’s iTunes Match was a download-only music service when it first launched, but that has all changed.

Before iOS 6, you could only download songs individually from the cloud but could not stream them. This means that you would have to locally store the song on your device to play it, which takes up space and defeats the whole purpose of iTunes Match. Now, a song immediately starts playing when you tap on it. You can either stream the song with an online connection, or download the song for offline connection.

This is a huge move for Apple and its iTunes Match service. Streaming music was a deal breaker for me, which is why I chose Spotify. Now that iTunes Match lets you stream your music, it may be a cool option to look at again…

[via CultofMac]