Pages

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Thoughts on the Cloud


After eons of waiting for someone to launch a cloud-based music player, Amazon swooped in and introduced their Amazon Cloud Player. There was much rejoicing. I for one, as well as my hard drive, anxiously await the day when we can turn everything over to the Cloud. It's exciting, it's convenience we've never known.

Fast forward a bit, I've finally gotten the chance to jot down some initial thoughts, plus a few others that have come to mind after signing up and uploading my iTunes.

+ Paying for storage as needed is so much more palatable than signing up for another monthly bill.

+ The fact that the music you buy from Amazon doesn't count against your storage is genius.

+ Weak internet connections make the Cloud Player all kinds of annoying.

+ This could be an iPod-killer. Think about it. If we all eventually get Smart Phones capable of streaming from the Cloud, why have an MP3 player?

+ Not being able to upload all those early DRM protected iTunes purchases hurts. Currently my Cloud Player is missing 137 songs including "Smooth" by Santana with Rob Thomas and the ever-delightful "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne.

+ I definitely think that iTunes waited too long and over-thought this whole thing. It seems like most of the chatter revolved around them being the first to launch a streaming music service, especially after they bought out and shut down LaLa.com a while back. That's a whole lot of momentum flat out lost.

More to come.

No comments: