Sometimes Apple Chaps My Hide

So I was wanting to move some songs from my Apple iCloud account to my iPhone, for listening locally on the plane.

Not apparent how to do this.  Tried everything I could think of for an hour, finally did a search online and found out I have to de-sync the phone from iCloud before I can move any local music in.  Why?  What for?  That's totally stupid.

Anyway, I did it and it works but I'm not impressed.

I don't know what Apple's definition of "sync" is; it would be interesting to find out. I have looked on iTunes to see what it means, but they don't explain it there. We all know that English language definitions hold no value for the computer industry.

What are you allowed to store on Apple's "cloud"? Just the stuff you buy from Apple, or can you upload music you have ripped to your computer?

Is the service free? If not, what does it cost?

The iCloud is kind of a master server in the sky. I back up all my devices to it, and it allows me to take pictures with one device and view them with another.

When Apple uses the term sync they mean all your devices share data.

The first 5 gigs is free. I just purchased another 45 for 99 cents a month.

Yes, I know what the "cloud" is, I was asking if you can use it as for general purpose storage, or just for iThings backup.

Is that 5GB free per device or per account?

Per account. Any data you want.

Is all of your data synced on all the devices? What if you upload something from your computer which is incompatible with the iPad or phone?

"Settings" allows you to turn sync off for various items.