As part of the update that introduced Apple Music, Apple disabled Home Sharing for music in iOS 8.4. Apple Music offers a lot of amazing features including a 24/7 radio station called Beats 1, streaming music with playlists curated by music experts and a social feature called Connect. But it has created problems for the people who used to use the Home Sharing for music streaming regularly.
What Home Sharing for music feature offered earlier?
Home Sharing was launched by Apple in 2011 as part of iOS 4.3. Before the rolling out of iOS 8.4 update, Home Sharing feature let users to share their central iTunes library across their home network with iOS devices and other computers. Home Sharing was the easiest way for users to access their complete library of iTunes music and videos from any iOS device. But with the updated version of iOS, Apple disabled Home Sharing for music in iOS 8.4, but videos can still be shared. However, Home Sharing still works on Apple TV, and from computer to computer. It is only the music that users will no longer be able to share on their iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone.
According to AppleInsider, in the release notes to the iOS 8.4 beta notes, Home Sharing was listed under known issues as “not currently available.” It may be an indication that the feature might return at some point of time.
Why Apple disabled Home Sharing of music in iOS 8.4?
Apple disabled Home Sharing of music in iOS 8.4, in an attempt to gently persuade people to sign up for Apple Music’s $14.99 family plan. Family plan will allow up to six people to access their entire library of Apple content and also let users to cache songs for offline listening. Another reason for disabling the feature may be regarding licensing legalities. Apple may not have the rights to let music acquired through the Apple Music to be streamed over a WiFi network.