Amazon just made the announcement about their new service for Android devices, Cloud Player. The service consists of two parts, the Cloud Player app for Android as well as a Cloud Drive… in the cloud. The idea here is that you get 5GB of free storage which you can upload your music to. Each time you purchase a song on Amazon, it will be automatically added, not counting toward that 5GB storage cap.
The launch is interesting, given the huge success of services such as Spotify (here in Europe) and Pandora (in the US). Here in Europe where Spotify is really big, I see most people just using Spotify on the computer and paying for their premium subscription, in order to stream to mobile devices as well.This almost begs the question whether MP3 files are necessary anymore to purchase and store?
Spotify is a prime example of how well the music streaming business can be executed. Open up the app and stream any music of your choice. Create playlists, share with your friends and discover new music. When it comes to popular music and new music that is played today, Spotify has it. If you don’t want to pay, you don’t need to since it has a free version which now and then breaks for ads (albeit no free version on mobile devices).
Personally, I very much like the new Amazon Cloud Player idea. Part of me still likes to buy my music, especially since it is something that I listen to all the time. Given that I have a lot of classical music in my library, I want to be able to choose the best performance possible that is to my liking. If I could then store this music online and access wherever, I would have more space available to me on the mobile device itself.
Sadly, the Cloud Player is only available to Android users which of course is very understandable. It will be interesting to see how this new service does out in the real world, instead of just on the drawing board.
Finally, I ask all of you, does Amazon Cloud Player fit into your music listening habits? Would you rather stream everything from a service such as Spotify, or does this new Cloud Player offer good value? Let’s hear your thoughts on this!