Amazon wants to be a one-stop shop when it comes to music. Of course, the online retailer has been selling digital tracks for quite some time. Now, they want to provide storage and a way for customers to access that audio content from any web-enabled computer or Android smartphone.
Today, the online retailer announced a trio of cloud-based services: Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android. But they didn't call it "aTunes" - too obvious?
Instead of putting all of your digital music on a hard drive, Amazon is inviting customers to put it into the Cloud Drive, which is one of Amazon's remote servers. Because the service is web-based, those same users can access that stored music from any Android phone or tablet, as well as a web-connected Mac or PC computer.
"Our customers have told us they don't want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices," said Bill Carr, Amazon's VP of movies and music. "Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it in the cloud and play it anywhere."
Amazon is giving customers 5GB of storage to start. If you purchase an Amazon MP3 album, that storage will be upgraded to 20GB. Customers can also purchase storage plans, which start at $20 a year for 20GB.
If Amazon is your main source of digital music, you don't have to worried about overcrowding the cloud. All Amazon purchases won't be counted against your storage quota. That also means that the Cloud Drive is not limited to Amazon purchases; users can also upload their existing music libraries to Amazon Cloud Drive.
Files are stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Amazon says this system supports both AAC or MP3 formats and all tracks are uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate.
Once you have your music in the cloud, there are two ways to access it. Cloud Player for Web currently supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome. This playback method allows customers to manage their music with download and streaming options. There are never any software updates. Mobile customers can access music through Cloud Player for Android. This is a mobile version of the Cloud Player, which also includes full access to the Amazon MP3 Store. This option is also bundled into the newest version of the Amazon MP3 App. This allows users to search and browse by artist, album or song, create playlists and download music from Cloud Drive.
Amazon Cloud Drive plans range from the free 5GB plan up to 1000GB of storage. The paid plans cost between $20 and $1000 a year.
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