I write about tech and music from time to time. I now purchase most of the music I purchase from Amazon and became aware of their new online service (Cloud Player). The service offers 5 gigabytes of free storage (temporarily 20 as an intro offer, but it will return to 5 in the future unless you pay). I am presently using the system as the way I purchase music because I like the interface better than the downloader – I purchase the music into Cloud Player and then download to whatever device. I don’t actually use the player to listen because I scrobble all my “listens” through lastfm and scrobbling is not available for Cloud Player.
Evidently, the service is somewhat controversial. Amazon seems to be taking the position – what is the difference between playing music from your hard drive and from your “hard drive in the cloud”. I suppose there is potential for abuse – it would seem you could share your login and then others could listen to the music you purchased (or uploaded).
If I understand the capabilities of the service, it seems you could have 5 gigs to use in anyway you want (not just music storage).
I am still irritated that Apple bought LaLa and then killed what was my music service of choice. So, Apple may have waited too long to roll out whatever they had in mind.