Amazon launches cloud-based music service

Thursday, March 31, 2011

After already establishing itself in the enterprise cloud computing market, Amazon apparently now has its sights set on consumers. The company recently announced the launch of a cloud-based service that lets users store and listen to their music libraries from virtually anywhere.

With Amazon Cloud Drive, subscribers can upload their personal music libraries directly to Amazon's servers, and then listen to tunes using the newly introduced Amazon Cloud Player.

The first five gigabytes of cloud storage are free for existing U.S. subscribers, and a 20-gigabyte upgrade is available by simply purchasing an Amazon MP3 album. The company is also offering storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 gigabytes.

Amazon Cloud Player is available for Macs and PCs, as well as Android-based devices for free.

"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," said Amazon vice president of movies and music Bill Carr.

Between Amazon Cloud Player, Amazon Web Services and other web services, Amazon's cloud business is expected to generate more than $5 billion in revenue by 2017, according to recent estimates by Trefis.