Amazon Cloud Music Player

[zerocool84]

Oh snap! Look who just ate Apple's and Google's lunch here? Amazon has just pushed out its very own music streaming service, which is conveniently dubbed the Amazon Cloud Player. Existing customers can now upload their MP3 purchases to their 5GB cloud space -- upgradable to a one-year 20GB plan for free upon purchasing an MP3 album -- and then start streaming using the player on your computer or on your Android. Oh, and did we mention that this service is free of charge as well? Looks like someone will have some catching up to do now.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-player-goes-live-streams-music-on-your-computer-an/

WOW very cool. Amazon threw this out before all the other big players. I wonder if this means we're getting even closer to a Kindle Tablet.

Amazon Cloud Player

What is the cloud?
The cloud is a term used to describe the Internet. Amazon Cloud Drive is your hard drive in the cloud. Securely store your music, videos, photos, and documents online and access them from anywhere. All you need is a web browser to upload, download, and access your files from any computer. Back up your files to ensure that your music, photos, and personal documents are available to you wherever you go. Learn more about Cloud Drive.


Who can access Cloud Player?
If you are an existing Amazon customer with a valid billing address in the United States, you have access to Cloud Player. All you need to do is accept the Cloud Player Terms of Use to start using your Cloud Player account. See how to access Cloud Player.


Who can access Cloud Drive?
If you are an existing Amazon customer, you have access to 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage. All you need to do is accept the Cloud Drive Terms of Use to start using your Cloud Drive account. Learn more about Cloud Drive.


Will all of my previous Amazon MP3 purchases already be in Cloud Drive?
No, but you can save all new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to Cloud Drive for free. Start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage which can be used to upload your existing music library, as well as videos, documents, and other digital files. Read about how to upload music.


Will I be charged for using Cloud Player or Cloud Drive?
Cloud Player is a free web and Android application. All customers start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage and you can upgrade to 20 GB of Cloud Drive storage with an MP3 album purchase (learn more about this offer). All new Amazon MP3 purchases saved to Cloud Drive do not count against your storage quota. Amazon also offers a variety of Cloud Drive storage plans to meet all of your data storage needs. Find out about Cloud Drive storage plans.


Can I upload music from my phone?
Uploading music from your mobile device is not possible at this time, but you can upload music from your PC or Mac. See how to upload music.


How do I know how much Cloud Drive storage I've used?
When you are in Cloud Player, you can see how much storage you've used by looking at the top left corner of the player screen under the Upload to your Cloud Drive button. View your storage usage and manage your files.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I dunno, seems pretty expensive, I'm still not sold on the cloud yet...

5 GB FREE of charge to you
20 GB $20.00 / year Less than $1.75 / month
50 GB $50.00 / year Less than $4.25 / month
100 GB $100.00 / year Less than $8.50 / month
200 GB $200.00 / year Less than $16.75 / month
500 GB $500.00 / year Less than $41.75 / month
1000 GB $1,000.00 / year Less than $83.50 / month

 

[vshah]

yeah, subsonic works just fine for me, and I don't have to pay 16.75 a month to store all my music.

 

[sciwizam]

One another thing, it's not limited to just music...you can upload any photos,video and documents to your cloud.

 

[gorcorps]

I dunno, seems pretty expensive, I'm still not sold on the cloud yet...

Not terribly expensive, but almost useless anymore IMO. Don't Android devices have access to Grooveshark? You can access any and all music at all times from there, and add whatever you want to your library for free. Then of course you can always just keep a laptop or netbook running to serve as your own media server (which I think is what subsonic does) so again, I'm really not seeing this take off.

I guess it's nice that they let you upload music already on your computer, so you're not just limited to Amazon purchases. Still, I just don't get it.

 

[Dulanic]

I know there are other options out there. However, this is a great option for those that are less "technically" inclined and is a great thing IMO.

 

[Kabob]

More options = good thing. I'm all for this move, although I agree that it is quite expensive.

 

[randomlinh]

Not terribly expensive, but almost useless anymore IMO. Don't Android devices have access to Grooveshark? You can access any and all music at all times from there, and add whatever you want to your library for free. Then of course you can always just keep a laptop or netbook running to serve as your own media server (which I think is what subsonic does) so again, I'm really not seeing this take off.

I guess it's nice that they let you upload music already on your computer, so you're not just limited to Amazon purchases. Still, I just don't get it.

isn't the mobile app $9/mo (or $3/mo if you're grandfathered)? Or do you mean using the web interface w/ flash access now?

Either way, my biggest disappointment with grooveshark is the continual lack of proper track number ordering. I generally like to listen to full albums, in the order intended... that isn't done well at all in grooveshark.

And the amazon cloud player is pretty clean. upload process sucks balls though.

Another thing to note, for anyone that purchases stuff from amazon mp3, the key is

All new Amazon MP3 purchases saved to Cloud Drive do not count against your storage quota. Amazon also offers a variety of Cloud Drive storage plans to meet all of your data storage needs. Find out about Cloud Drive storage plans.

Very nice, though, a shame they don't backfill your library with stuff you already bought. I gather that was a concession in the contracts w/ the labels.

 

[abaez]

You get 20gigs free if you buy an album from them I believe.

 

[Spoooon]

Wish it worked kind of like dropbox, where I can just put files that I want synced in a folder as opposed to uploading them individually.

Haven't tried the app yet.

edit: Man, it really sucks that you can't just select a folder and have it upload the contents.

 

[dguy6789]

The biggest attraction to this is that Amazon MP3 music you buy does not count towards the space requirements. This basically means that people can finally buy digital copies of music that they can never lose. Whether you delete stuff on your devices or not, you can always log into your Amazon account and download your music again. This is to music what Steam is to games.

 

[randomlinh]

You get 20gigs free if you buy an album from them I believe.

for a year... it's a subscription service

Wish it worked kind of like dropbox, where I can just put files that I want synced in a folder as opposed to uploading them individually.

Haven't tried the app yet.

edit: Man, it really sucks that you can't just select a folder and have it upload the contents.

you can select a folder and have it upload. the problem is when you do, it lists the whole directory listing as a flat tree. I can't easily unselect a few folders I don't want... So i have to go in manually to do it folder by folder..... ugh.

 

[cronos]

you can select a folder and have it upload. the problem is when you do, it lists the whole directory listing as a flat tree. I can't easily unselect a few folders I don't want... So i have to go in manually to do it folder by folder..... ugh.

Are you guys using Amazon MP3 Uploader? I just did this and the process is as easy as possible. The software will automatically detect your music, even playlists from WMP and iTunes. I did not use any of the two to manage my music, so I had to add my Music folder for the software to index, and then I just easily pick and choose which ones (album or individual song) I want to sync to the cloud.

Edit: never mind, just realized that you guys aren't talking about the music cloud but rather files in general

 

[Spoooon]

Okay, it's pretty cool. I was afraid that it would be easy to buy something by accident because the cloud player is attached to the mp3 store app.

So far so good.

edit: Bought an album (Arcade Fire's The Suburbs), get 20GB free for 1 year. I don't know if that deal (getting 20GB with an album purchase) has an expiration date.

 

[Codewiz]

I think the big key is that any music you buy from amazon doesn't count towards your limit. So my music collection just got paired down to about 15gig. I am uploading all that and if I just buy music from amazon, I will never need more space.

I think this is pretty awesome. The only downside is that it won't work on my ipad.

And $20/year seems like a decent deal.

 

[HN]

you can get the 20GB for as little as $0.69

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=2793945

 

[dguy6789]

you can get the 20GB for as little as $0.69

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=2793945

I would rather pay full price than have that album in my purchase history

 

[HN]

I would rather pay full price than have that album in my purchase history

know that there are others to choose from. point is, you can get 20GB for cheap

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=...1.00&x=11&y=14

 

[Codewiz]

I paid $3.68 for my first album to get the 20gig. From a band I like.

 

[SunnyD]

I love all these services. Well, no I don't... but companies like AT&T et'al should be going apeshit over them. Overage CITY!!!! $$$ in their eyes...

 

[gorcorps]

The biggest attraction to this is that Amazon MP3 music you buy does not count towards the space requirements. This basically means that people can finally buy digital copies of music that they can never lose. Whether you delete stuff on your devices or not, you can always log into your Amazon account and download your music again. This is to music what Steam is to games.

I'm confused by this, as itunes and Amazon has had digital music for a long time now that is tied to your account. Losing your music has never be a problem with good digital music stores. It's not like you get to download it once and that's it... they've always been permanently tied to your account. I can log in to Amazon at any time from any computer and download the things I purchased a year ago.

What you just described is something that Amazon and itunes have been doing for years now... the only difference is now you don't have to download it, you can just stream it and not take up space.

 

[dguy6789]

Digital music bought from Amazon's MP3 store prior to this was not tied to your account as far as I know. I can find no place to redownload music I bought previously on Amazon. If there is a way I would be happy to be shown

 

[gorcorps]

Digital music bought from Amazon's MP3 store prior to this was not tied to your account as far as I know. I can find no place to redownload music I bought previously on Amazon. If there is a way I would be happy to be shown

Log in to Amazon, click on "your account" or w/e it says in the top right. Scroll down to the Digital Content section, and click "MP3 Downloads" under the "Your Media Library" and you can redownload stuff you bought on that account. The interface has changed recently, but it's always been available in some shape or form in the few years I've used it. I remember it being one of Amazon's selling points when they started their MP3 store: that it was high quality, no DRM, and (like itunes) would stick with your account.

edit: I mean I wasn't with it since it launched, but I've been using it for a while and I have used it a lot. I'm 99.99% sure it's been there all the time, and it's at least been there for a couple years.

 

[Dulanic]

Are you guys using Amazon MP3 Uploader? I just did this and the process is as easy as possible. The software will automatically detect your music, even playlists from WMP and iTunes. I did not use any of the two to manage my music, so I had to add my Music folder for the software to index, and then I just easily pick and choose which ones (album or individual song) I want to sync to the cloud.

Edit: never mind, just realized that you guys aren't talking about the music cloud but rather files in general

I am using the music uploader now and it is beautiful! It works great and the fact that all music you buy through Amazon doesn't count against your limit... even better.

The app is awesome too as it buffers the songs ahead of the song you are on. Makes for smooth playback and it doesnt even downgrade the songs, they play at original bit rate.

 

[randomlinh]

Are you guys using Amazon MP3 Uploader? I just did this and the process is as easy as possible. The software will automatically detect your music, even playlists from WMP and iTunes. I did not use any of the two to manage my music, so I had to add my Music folder for the software to index, and then I just easily pick and choose which ones (album or individual song) I want to sync to the cloud.

Edit: never mind, just realized that you guys aren't talking about the music cloud but rather files in general

I was talking about the mp3 uploader.. or whatever it is that comes up when I click upload from the cloud player interface.

I don't use itunes as my main player, and have everything under a few different folders (basically, where I got them from... amazon/emusic/ripped/itunes). I gave it the top directory just to try. And it returned a flat list of all the directories I had... making it painful to find the 10% or so of files I didn't want to upload.