Recently, Amazon.com Inc. reached agreements with the four major U.S. record companies to start a music service that allows users to store songs on a remote cloud server and access them online. Amazon plans to start the U.S. service in the first week of July, with Europe availability shortly after. Amazon’s music service will work similarly to Apple Inc. iTunes, allowing multiple devices access a centrally located music collection.
Amazon offered a cloud music service, back in March 2011, which circumvented the need for agreements with individual record companies. Legally, Amazon’s service required users to upload tracks to the company’s servers. This was a lengthy process depending on Internet speed and also had limited playback options.
The new agreements will give customers, who buy music through Amazon’s music store, a free amount of storage. Customers who choose to store their entire collections, including tracks purchased elsewhere, will be charged an annual fee.
Amazon’s music service will be available on iPads and iPhones through the Kindle application for Apple devices.
For more information, see the article “Amazon Said To Start Apple Cloud Music Challenger In July” by Andy Fixmer and Danielle Kucera.
