Amazon Cloud Drive and Player

Discussion in 'Technology' started by bfun, Mar 29, 2011.

  1. #1 bfun, Mar 29, 2011
    So Amazon has this new thing where you can upload 5GB of music to a cloud drive and play it through any web browser or Android phone. Seems like a brilliant idea. I just downloaded the app and it found about 2000 songs on my PC. It says it will take 14 hours to upload them all. I'll give it a go and try it from work tomorrow.

    The whole thing is free but their might be some issues if some of your music is not legit. If you buy 1 mp3 album they upgrade your space to 20GB.
     
  2. #2 alterego, Mar 30, 2011
    Amazon may have blundered by not securing licensing with the entertainment companies.

     
  3. #3 bfun, Mar 30, 2011
    This will certainly be interesting. But if they violated the right of the music industry couldn't the same be said about any cloud storage system?
     
  4. #4 alterego, Mar 30, 2011
    I guess that depends on what the service does. Amazon isn't really just providing cloud storage, but also streaming of the content. My guess would be that's where the licensing and legal issues come into play. Apple has cloud storage like iDisk and MobileMe, but it doesn't have a streaming function for any of the files you place there...just upload/download.
     
  5. #5 bfun, Mar 30, 2011
    I think there is a fine line between streaming and downloading but I don't know how the app works. The music might be downloaded and then run through the player.
     
  6. #6 alterego, Mar 30, 2011
    The Cloud Player application is meant to stream music from your Cloud Drive, either on a computer or an Android mobile.
     
  7. #7 khaid, Mar 30, 2011
    I messed around a bit with this stuff when I got my cr48 from google.. I ended up using mspot as that was a free 2GB of cloud storage for music with built in streaming. It also allows you to stream to your android device (and also the option of downloading and storing the music on your android device).

    I don't know how that pertains to this discussion but I just wanted to post that.
     
  8. #8 bfun, Mar 30, 2011
    Well Google has been testing it internally and is close to launching. Apple was also talking to the record label companies. It will be become a regular service soon enough. It will be interesting to see what direction it takes. Amazon jumped to be the first out the door and their service seems to be good for consumers.
     
  9. #9 alterego, Mar 30, 2011
    Speaking of mspot, here's an article from Techcrunch that has responses about Amazon's move by the heads of mp3.com and mspot..

    I actually don't agree that Apple will sidestep the licensing side regardless of how fast/slow the labels act regarding Amazon's attempt at skipping it.
     
  10. #10 bfun, Mar 30, 2011
    I’m certain that some people will be upset if the record companies push back. It’s clear they own the music but this would be seen as them trying to control the methods that people use to listen to the music they have purchased. I also think this service could benefit the record companies.
     
  11. #11 alterego, Mar 30, 2011
    I think the gray area for Amazon is that they're using the licensed digital audio store as part of the promotional draw for the unlicensed music storage/streaming service that they're charging for. I would hazard a guess that is part of what labels believe they should get compensation for.
     
  12. #12 bfun, Apr 7, 2011
    Amazon upgrades your storage space to 20GB when you buy any album.

    Here is one for a dollar.

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Q3MRPI?t=slicinc-20&tag=slicinc-20