Amazon Cloud Music Player

The main reason I don't buy songs or many videos form iTunes is because I have to store them and back them up locally. Amazon is now offering to store such things in the "cloud" for me. Today, they have a special $0.99 offer for Lady Gaga's latest album. I can download the MP3's directly to my computer, play on any device (including the iPod) -- but if my hard drive crashes, they are still in Amazon's cloud.

In this way, it's a music version of the Kindle, where all the books are stored in the cloud. Even if my Kindle is destroyed, I can still get a replacement device, and re-download all my purchased books. In much the same way, I could buy a new iPod, and download everything on my Amazon cloud account any time I want.

So here is a screenshot. I'm listening to my purchase, via the web-based player, as I write this.

I'll download these later to my iPod and see how that works.

How much does the the Cloud Drive cost?

My music is placed on my Cloud Drive. I didn't know I had something called a "Cloud Drive". What the heck is that?

Apparently, it's a new service by Amazon. It gives you 5-gigabytes of free storage for things you upload to it. In addition, things you buy from Amazon do not count toward that limit. I suppose everyone who has an account with Amazon now has a "Cloud Drive".

I'm a bit worried that Amazon was doing the typical slimy business practice of giving you a new service without you realizing it, then charging you for it. But, apparently not. The service is free. In addition, with my Lady Gaga purchase, I got a free "one year trial" of the 20-gig version. After a year, it will automatically revert back to the 5-gig -- it will not automatically start charging me.