Amazon.com has announced three cloud-based music services; Amazon Cloud Drive,
and
Amazon Cloud Player for Android
,
However there's no word as yet on a UK release date for the Cloud Player - like the UK version of the Appstore, could an announcement be some way off?
Together, these services enable customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet or a Mac or PC regardless of location.
Amazon says that you'll be able to upload your music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and that you start with 5 GB of storage for free. As well as the US, the Cloud Storage is available in the UK and Ireland as well as various other European countries.
In the US only, if you purchase an Amazon MP3 album you'll be upgraded to 20 GB of Cloud Drive space, again for free.
New Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free and do not count against the storage quota. If you need more space, you can purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB.
Original bit rate
Files can be stored in AAC or MP3 formats and will be uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. Customers can hand-pick particular songs, artists, albums or playlists to upload or simply upload their entire music library.
"We're excited to take this leap forward in the digital experience," said Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon. "The launch of Cloud Drive, Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android eliminates the need for constant software updates as well as the use of thumb drives and cables to move and manage music."
"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," Carr said. "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."
Cloud Player for Web and Android
Music can be listened through Cloud Player on any browser. Cloud Player for Web currently supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome and the player lets you manage your music with various download and streaming options.
Amazon MP3 customers can continue to use iTunes and Windows Media Player to add their music to their iPods and MP3 players.
Cloud Player for Android is bundled into the new version of the Amazon MP3 App; it includes the full Amazon MP3 Store and the mobile version of Cloud Player. Customers can use the app to play music stored on their Cloud Drive and music stored locally on their device. Features include the ability to search and browse by artist, album or song, create playlists and download music from Cloud Drive.
All files uploaded to Amazon's cloud are securely backed up on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files; music, photos, videos and documents can be stored securely and are available via web browser on any computer.
