Background
Amazon recently released it's Cloud Drive, a 'digital locker' that allows users to store and retrieve files on a personal Amazon server. The server can be accessed by any device with an Internet connection. Amazon starts you off with a free 5 GB and users can upgrade storage space for free.
Generally speaking, it means you can get any of your songs, movies, documents...from ANYWHERE.
The Cloud Drive isn't the first step in the history of Internet storage, but it is an important one because of its relationship with the transfer digital music - which brings along a litany of murky legal issues that have yet to be clearly established.
Amazon has chosen to tie its digital media sales in with the functionality of the Cloud. Digital music purchased directly from Amazon can be stored on the Cloud for free - and if you buy an MP3 album, they'll give you another free 20 GB of storage to use for up to a year.
It had been rumored that for years Amazon was working with the major labels toward a similiar service, but in the end they went through with the Cloud on their own.
Amazon's stance indicates that it feels no obligation to pay for the right to allow its customers to play THEIR files on multiple devices, despite the fact that the major labels believe they are owed compensation from Amazon for the site's 'hosting' copyrighted materials.
Major labels have been losing money for years because their businesses were built at a time that they had a better grip over the proliferation of music. The advent and popularity of peer-to-peer transfer took this control away and made it difficult to turn a profit on music sales.
So Right Now, What Does This All Mean?
At this point, nothing. The Majors are voicing their displeasure and threatening litigation but nobody really knows if what Amazon is doing can be classified as illegal. Is the stored media being streamed or progressively downloaded (the main difference is protocol and it is very slight, but not in terms of the law)? Or is this just a new method of personal storage?
Amazon struck first in the US market but Google and Apple are both rumored to be developing their own media lockers. If Apple can integrate the iTunes interface into a compatibility with Internet storage, then I'll predict they're going to come out on top. All bets are off, however, as we are entering a new frontier in the world of digital music.
Sources:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383187,00.asp
http://flipthemedia.com/index.php/2011/04/amazon-cloud-service-vs-big-record-companies/
