Slope Media Group

Music in the Cloud

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an entry about cloud computing and the benefits it had over hard-drive based computing. Today, I would like to focus on a new cloud storage device that was introduced this past week.

Many of you are aware of Google Docs as one of the many cloud services available (if you don’t, now you know!). Google Docs is a Google service that not only allows you to upload documents, presentations, and spreadsheets into the Google “cloud”, but it also allows you to create new files and collaborate with other people in real-time. Other Google cloud services include Picasa, which allows you to upload photos and share them with other people (Flickr and Facebook have similar services).

Another cloud service that most people use is DropBox. The name of the service sort of explains itself. You simply “drop” a document into your DropBox account, and afterwards, you can open that document on whatever device you have, so long as that device has DropBox installed on it. However, unlike Google Docs, DropBox does not allow you to collaborate with other users in real-time. You can share files with other people, but they’ll first have to download the file onto their computer hard drive, if they wish to make edits to the file. Afterwards, when they are finished, they can upload it again to DropBox, and you can see the edits they made.

So far, a lot of cloud services allow you to add, create, and edit files. Some even allow you to add photos. But, what about music? People also buy music off the Internet? Can they store their music in the cloud as well?

Well…yes…and no. Music files take up a load of space, and most cloud services do not give you that much storage space to place all your music. Google Docs has a 1GB limit, while DropBox has a 2GB limit. In some cloud services, like Google Docs and DropBox, you can upgrade your account to increase the storage limit, but then you’ll have to pay an annual fee. Plus, some cloud services have an upload limit (like 25MB), preventing you from uploading larger files. Furthermore, even if you do find a way to upload your music to the cloud, how are you going to play it? Not every cloud service has a music player in them…until now!

Allow me to introduce to you (my loyal readers), the Amazon Cloud Player! Amazon released the Cloud Player this past week, which surprised a lot of tech giants like Apple and Google. Amazon is pretty well known for the variety of items they sell to consumers, from books (hardcopies and ebooks) to music (both CD and MP3) and movies to games, etc. When you purchase music from Amazon, you can either buy an actual CD, wait for it to ship, and then copy the music to your computer. The other way is to buy the music in MP3 format. Originally, the digital music would be downloaded to your computer, but now, you have to option of saving your purchased MP3 files to the Amazon Cloud Player. You can even upload music files to the Amazon Cloud Player as well. It comes with a free 5GB limit, but you can upgrade it to 20GB if you purchase an MP3 album from the Amazon MP3 store. However, if you obtain the upgrade through that method, it will only last for one year. You can also upgrade your account to 20GB permanently buy paying $20/year. If you are a hardcore music fan and 20GB is not enough for you, then you can upgrade to 1TB (terabyte, or 10^12 bytes) for $1000/year.

Music files stored on the Amazon Cloud Player can be downloaded to any device you want, regardless of operating system. So, you can purchase music from the Amazon MP3 store on your home computer, store it on the Cloud Player, and then listen to it on your work computer, Android device, or Blackberry (no iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad app available yet). Furthermore, if you lose one of those devices, your MP3 files are kept safe in the Cloud Player, so you don’t have to purchase them again.

You can also upload music stored on your computer to the Amazon Cloud Player. The upload limit is 100MB, and you can only upload MP3 and AAC files (if you are unfamiliar with the AAC format, that’s the format Apple uses for digital music purchased from the iTunes store). Also, music protected by the Digital Rights Management (DRM) cannot be uploaded.

Outside of those limitations, I think the Amazon Cloud Player is worth trying out. Give it a shot!