Amazon launches 'cloud locker' music service
Amazon announced Cloud Drive and Cloud Player for the Web and Android, a new web-based service that lets you store your music and other files in the cloud and access them on the go. Streaming music is possible using a web-based player compatible with the Mac and PC as well as an Android application.
The Cloud Drive service competes with online storage solutions like Dropbox by letting you upload music, video, photos and other documents to an online locker. The service provides you with 5 GB of online storage space for free, and additional storage capacity is available for a minimal fee. The paid service includes 20 GB of storage for $20, 50 GB for $50 and so on.
Amazon's Cloud Player service is free and brings music streaming to the masses who shop Amazon's web store. Amazon apparently launched the service without the blessing of the recording industry and is working on securing post-announcement licenses. The online retail giant is forcing the music industry to play its hand and either support the service or risk appearing as the bad guy by shooting Amazon down. It's a gutsy move, but one that Amazon needs to make if it wants to catch up with its competition.
Speaking of competition, read on to find out how Amazon is taking on Apple's popular iTunes music service.
Amazon beats Apple to the punch when it comes to online music streaming and hits iOS in its Achilles heel by disconnecting the Cloud Player service from the computer. In its video overview, Amazon is quick to point out its service does not require you connect your Android device to your computer to transfer music. Amazon simplifies the process by automatically adding tracks to your online digital library when you purchase music from Amazon's mp3 store. This differs from iOS, which still requires you to connect your portable device to iTunes on your computer in order to transfer music files.
Amazon's new service is not the beginning of the end for iTunes as some are predicting, though. Apple purchased online music service LaLa a few years ago and is rumored to be working on its own streaming music service. This iTunes in the cloud has not yet materialized, but rumors pointing to its existence continue to persist. Rather than push its service through shotgun-style, Apple may be taking the time to work out licensing agreements and build a cloud infrastructure that will put its competition to shame.
[Via Business Insider]
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Amazon announced Cloud Drive and Cloud Player for the Web and Android, a new web-based service that lets you store your music and...
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Does anyone know how I am able to use the cloud player on my jailbroken iPhone 4? I'm currently on iOS 4.1 and I can use the web player via safari just fine. I get the not supported browser message but once I continue on I'm able to play songs within Safari using the cloud drive player and use all the functions of the player. I'm wondering if its the Safari plugins I've added that is giving me this capability. I do you have Safari Download Manager installed.
March 30 2011 at 3:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis sounds a lot like what Lala was, a music retailer that allowed you to save a copy of the files you bought on their servers in your own music locker. They also had an app that copied your iTunes Music Folder to the music locker sans songs they had in their catalogue. You then had access to this locker on a Flash based web site player (they were working on an iPhone App when Apple bought them.)
I'm guessing Apple is renegotiating all the licenses needed to do this (Lala's weren't transferable from what i understood) and include video into the mix. But like most people my money is on only what you purchased from the iTunes Store or maybe only what is available in the iTunes Store as far as what can be uploaded. I'm not counting on the latter though.
@ Josh - No disrespect, but if you have to ask that question, you will never understand the answer. I'm in the process of converting all of my CDs to lossless, and have 174GB of music so far. Keep in mind that your 33GB in MP3 is likely 84GB in Apple Lossless (forgive the crude math...just making a point)...so don't judge the number of songs by the size of the files!
I may only listen to music a few hours a day, but I can listen to ANYTHING...the more I have, the more variety! Besides, making playlists with a huge catalog is fantastic!
So, virtually unaffordable (as expected) for anyone with a serious music library. I'm at 175 GB and counting as my music is all lossless.
March 29 2011 at 12:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyi'm looking forward to google doing this too. i'm paying $5 i think, for an extra 20 gb of storage (and barely using that). it gets pooled in w/ picasa and gmail storage for a 28 gb total. that beats amazon and apple's pricing.
March 29 2011 at 11:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply@Marc - yes, it clearly does beat Apple's (yet to be announced product with yet to be announced) pricing.
Personally, I feel this way (copied my from a comment on another thread)
Well, if this doesn’t help confirm the rumors that Apple is preparing to update MobileMe to offer a “Music Locker†that you can store music online and listen from your iPod touch, iPad, iPhone, etc. then nothing short of Steve Jobs announcing it on a stage will confirm. Apple is not going to want to be outdone. Doesn’t matter if Amazon releases an app or not, MobileMe needs to offer similar storage/streaming options. My hope is that Apple will take it a step further, and that you can just go to the iPod app on your iDevice, and locally stored music appears side by side with cloud stored music.
Now that I think about it? Maybe I DO want an Amazon app. Then, I could have 20 GB of lesser listened to music on the Amazon app, an additional (20?) GB of music I listen to more often on MobileMe, then only what I REALLY have to have at all times (very little) stored on my iPhone. Assuming Apple meets the 20 GB amount as well, I think that between them and Amazon, I would have all of my music in the cloud. Then could save the physical storage for videos and apps.
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned in the article:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1000667531
Buy any MP3 album (even $1.99 albums) and get upgraded to 20GB for free.
Of course, a free upgrade that costs $1.99 isn't really free, but hey - it's 20GB of cloud storage for $1.99! I got mine!
Help
For U.S. Customers Only
It appears that you are attempting to use Amazon Cloud Player from outside the U.S. This service is intended for U.S. customers only.
"We do not guarantee that Your Files will not be subject to misappropriation, loss or damage and we will not be liable if they are." Does anything else really need to be said here?
March 29 2011 at 9:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyRead this before buying:
Section 5.2 of Amazon Cloud Drive ToS: "Our Right to Access Your Files" - http://j.mp/gV25Re
Amazon's approach is to offer a service as if it were a cloud storage drive, meaning you don't need to just purchase the stored music from them. Hence no need for licensing agreements.
I'd be willing to bet Apple's offering will restrict storage to music purchased from Apple only. It will probably be a smoother play on the fly experience, but more restricted on the content origin.
Apple clearly has exactly the same legal view. After all, you can stream music you've transferred to iDisk. You just can't do it unless you pay $99 a year.
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