Amazon Cloud Player

Today I stumbled upon Amazon's new service, the Amazon Cloud Player.  This service allows you to upload all of your music files to a free online cloud storage locker hosted by Amazon.  The first 5GB are free, and your music purchases from Amazon don't count toward the storage limit.  You can buy more storage space for a very reasonable yearly rate if you need it, though I have just discovered that my current library of music sits at just about 4.8GB, and I could probably prune down the files I want online if I had to.  In the past I have traditionally used MP3 downloads from Amazon because the prices were better than iTunes, but more recently the prices from most services have more or less leveled out.  Oh, I should probably also mention that the Amazon Cloud Player, while being designed for music, can also store other file types.

The reason this service is a big deal is that digital licenses aren't required to upload your music, which that (if you're anything like me) the old files you had copied from CDs you purchased that don't have digital licenses attached can be uploaded to a place where they are stored and protected (YAY!).  And from the cloud storage, your songs can be streamed to any compatible device, and downloaded to your computer or device.  I note the downloading feature for Mr. Q, who recently went over to the dark side by purchasing a Mac.  At least for now, it appears that Amazon is taking a cheap shot at iOS by purposely making the streaming features of the service *not* work on iOS devices (there is, however, a download for Android).  I found another review where someone confirmed that this is not a Flash issue; however, a possible work around is that while you can't stream, downloading to iOS systems still works.

Of course, this awesome system does not come without its troubles.  The music industry is peeved that Amazon dare offer a streaming service where people can play the music that they have rightfully purchased and own, and will likely bring a lawsuit concerning digital licenses (read more about this issue here).  Obviously there is potential for abuse here, though I don't see how it could be any greater than any other cloud storage system, and those exist in abundance.  Personally, I think the music industry will end up having to let this one go or lose their case--it's overstepping the copyright to say that I can't store files I own in a legitimate cloud service.  If I were using it for criminal purposes instead of solely for personal use, then they would have a case, and I'm betting that existing anti-filesharing efforts would already net these culprits (i.e., when your ISP or Amazon notices that your IP address or Cloud account is seeing 50GB worth of downloading music files every day, something is probably up).

So, I encourage you all to check out this great service--this is a fantastic way to archive your music files to be sure you don't lose them when your computer dies and takes iTunes with it or your MP3 player get dropped in a bath tub.

Alula