Amazon's Cloud music storage is here..

I just had to pint it out and make it bold, since people keep saying it even though the previous five posts have been people correcting the last person who said it.

Funny how people will decide not to use a product or service and they don't even know what the product or service is.

Also as seen with the RSD poll it takes a small minority to totally take over threads.

 

You need a licenses to have a jukebox in a bar. Anytime you find a way to make money off of music publishers will find a way to charge you for it.

 

Agreed. I don't need music constantly in my life.

 

I get that, because that's a public performance in a commercial venue; but you don't need a license to play your own stereo, even if it was a party and hundreds of people are at your house.

Your cloud storage is (ostensibly) private and only you and your Cloud Player can access it. Does Western Digital need a license to sell you a hard disk?

 

No but you need to pay more to burn music to a cd-r.

 

that's true, although not many people actually buy that more expensive audio CD-Rs which have the license included in the cost.

Do you pay a license when you copy your music to an iPod, or is that like an audio CD-R with the license built in?

 

I think it's built in, not 100% sure.

The point is though amazon is making money off music that they don't own, the publishers are not going to ignore that.

 

well, they are not making additional money off the music they have already sold you - they are providing a storage space for that, and the player is free. if anything, you are paying for the access, but that goes to the telcos and ISPs.

 

Yeah good luck explaining that to the publishers.

 

Here's a good article from Britain's THE INDEPENDENT on amazon's Cloud.

BTW, I'm personally passing on this feature (for now). I subscribe, for $99. per year, to Apple's MobileMe app. which is basically a remote storage space for music and everything else, as far as computer files are concerned.

Amazon vs Apple: The race for the future of music
A new 'virtual jukebox' lets you play your own songs wherever you are. Jerome Taylor on why it makes iPods look so last century

Ever since the dawn of the internet, music fans have dreamt of a mythical celestial jukebox where every song ever produced would be available at the click of a button.

Now Amazon has sneaked ahead of arch rivals Apple and Google by becoming the first major internet company to unveil a music-streaming service – allowing people to store their music online and listen to the tracks on any computer or smartphone.

So-called "cloud music", where music libraries are stored in cyberspace rather than on computer hard drives, is the new Holy Grail of the digital music industry, as technology companies race to entice consumers in a world where the CD has been all but abandoned.

Cloud music players are often described as "digital lockers" where music listeners can place the music they own on a remote server. Users can then access their music library anywhere in the world as long as they have a fast internet connection.

It means that gap-year students travelling abroad or employees in offices can listen over the internet to the same CDs that are sitting on their bedroom shelves at home. Amazon's service, which is not yet available to British customers, starts by giving subscribers 5GB of free storage space, enough to hold 1,000 songs. Those who purchase an album through the company's digital music store will be given a further 20GB free for the first year and will then be expected to pay $20 (£12.50) a year to continue using the service.

You can then access your music on any computer or Android mobile phone. Given the ongoing hostility between Amazon and Apple – the two companies are currently engaged in a legal spat over who owns the phrase "App Store" – iPhones will not be able to sign up to the Amazon cloud player.

Music fans might find it somewhat galling to pay a company to store their music for them, but according to Mike Butcher, European editor of the TechCrunch technology blog, it won't be long before everyone is listening to music this way. He said: "Most of us have growing libraries of digital music.

"But if our hard drives crash or our computers are stolen we risk losing everything. Storing your music on a cloud means you'll always be able to access it." As internet speeds continue to get faster, many companies are trying to persuade people to store their data with them to free up space on their hard drives. The practice also gives the companies a lucrative insight into their customers' spending habits.

But the emergence of cloud players is very likely to lead to yet another clash between software companies and record labels over royalties and the thorny question of who owns the rights to digital music files. Figures released this week show that global recorded music sales fell by $1.3bn last year as digital piracy continues to take its toll on the music industry. Record label executives are determined to rake back profits through music providers like Apple, Amazon and Google. But cloud players could soon become a new sticking point.

"There is going to be a monumental ding-dong over all this in the coming years," Steve Mayall, editor of the consultancy Music Ally, said. "Amazon can probably see which way the wind is blowing and have decided to roll out their service, but I'm sure there will be some legal battles on the horizon."

Uploading music files to a digital locker is still viewed as legally ambiguous. Although someone who has bought a track has the right to listen to it, do they then have the right to share it on another server? And would a cloud provider like Amazon be liable for pirated music that is played through its servers? Although many record labels have turned a blind eye to these ambiguities, a handful of companies are being sued over such issues.

Amazon has defended its cloud system as being no different to using a web-based service to back up files. "We don't need a licence to store music," Craig Pape, the company's director of music, said. "The functionality is the same as an external hard drive."

 

If I were a political figure or celebrity, I'd worry about my privacy online. But I'm Mike Nobody from Iowa, and Amazon doesn't care about me personally, only the way I buy. I'm fine with that. If there is a mass lawsuit from the RIAA over cloud-based music servers, I won't be the only one in court.

 

It's really amazing how spot on you were.

 

Q not totally related to the post, but I gotta ask : Lots of people who've gone digital (smartly) maintain multiple copies of their music/data. One copy is frequently stored at the office or another safe off-site location in case of some problem- fire, water damage, etc. Vinyl and CD collectors don't do this and (some at least) thumb their nose at the hard drive concept noting that LPs don't fail. True, but "physical" media are also going to damaged or destroyed in the event of disaster. What gives.

Not a dig at anyone; just an observation.

 

Buy two of everything

 

When I compare how many times one of my lps or cds was damaged compared to the number of hard drives that have failed...I know why I'm worried about my digital files.

It's the risk factor. You are more likely to run into a HD failure.

 

If you keep all of your files on your hard drive, what exactly is the point of having them on the cloud as well?

 

Really? Edward Baig from USA Today didn't find that to be the case.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2011-03-29-amazon-cloud-based-storage.htm

 

In case your hard drive fails or you don't have your hard drive with you on vacation or in the car when you're driving.

I can't believe "the cloud" concept is so hard to grasp for some people.

 

Probably if you don't have internet access all the time.

 

I grasp "the cloud" concept, believe me.

As I noted above, good luck listening to your music from the cloud in the car when you're driving through a dead cell zone on the highway.

 

We all grasp it - it's not rocket science.

 

not everyone {can|wants to} lug around a 2TB hard drive

 

Driver 8 just likes arguing for arguments sake.

I mean lets take the argument to extremes.

Good luck playing your vinyl when your house looses power.

 

And I don't need to have access to 2TB of music at all times, no matter where I am in the world. Part of the fun of traveling is doing things in the real world in the new places that you are visiting, not "accessing your digital media files" via the Internet. On the last significant trip away from home that I took, I probably listened to music twice in two weeks. I don't need to have everything all of the time, as Thom Yorke put it on Kid A.

 

As I've said several times, if Amazon's cloud storage service works for you, more power to you. It's not for me, that's all.