Amazon today announced the launch of a number of new services that will let customers store and play music in the cloud. Together, the Amazon Cloud Drive, the Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and the Amazon Cloud Player for Android will let customers store their music in the cloud and play it back on Android devices as well as Macs and PCs.
“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.”
Customers are given 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free. Those who purchase an Amazon MP3 album will be upgraded to 20GB of storage. Additional storage is also available with prices starting at US$20 per year. New Amazon MP3 purchases are stored on Cloud Drive and do not count against the storage limit. Customers can also upload files in AAC or MP3 format.
Music playback is possible through a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome are all supported) or through Android devices. The Cloud Player will let users play music stored both locally and in their Cloud Drive.
Both Apple and Google are expected to unveil similar services in the near future.
AmazonMP3.com and Cloud Drive services are not available in Canada yet.