Cloud Computing: Amazon Cloud Drive and Player Aims for Ease of Use, Big Storage
Cloud Music
Amazons new cloud-based service allows customers to upload their music to the online retailers Cloud Drive and play songs via a Cloud Player. Amazon is also offering 5GB of free storage for their music on Cloud Drive.
Uploading
After signing into your Amazon account, the Cloud Drive asks you to select files to upload.
Finding Music
Pulling music from a hard drive (including iTunes) is an easy click-through process. All songs tested were DRM-free.
The Crawl
Uploading 250MB of music took more than an hour on a cable broadband connection.
Deal
Amazon is offering to upgrade users 5GB of free space to 20GB for a year if they purchase an Amazon MP3 album. Songs purchased from Amazon MP3 are stored in Cloud Drive without counting toward the users overall storage total.
Extra Space
In addition to music, Cloud Drive customers can also store photos, videos and documents. Fees start at $20 per year for 20GB of space, rising to $1,000 per year for 1,000GB.
Searchable
Cloud Drive features include the ability to search through your music collection for songs.
Fee Structure
Amazons fee structure for cloud storage. The top option includes 1,000GB for $1,000 per year.
Previously Purchased
Songs previously purchased through Amazons MP3 store do not appear automatically on the Cloud Drive after your first sign-in.??Ã
Support
Amazons Cloud Player supports the Web and Android, but??Ãthere is no native application for Apples iOS franchise. Nor does the cloud player support RIMs BlackBerry or Palm.
All Stripped Down
The Cloud Players interface is notably stripped down. In an interesting twist, Amazon seems to make an effort to find cover art for all uploaded songs.
