“Amazon.com Inc. reached agreements with the four major U.S. record companies to start a music service that lets users store songs on a remote server and access them online, people familiar with the matter said,” Andy Fixmer and Danielle Kucera report for Bloomberg. “Amazon plans to start the U.S. service in the first week of July, with Europe availability shortly after, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. With the agreements, Amazon’s music service will work similarly to Apple Inc.’s iTunes, letting multiple devices access a centrally stored music collection.”
Fixmer and Kucera report, “The company first offered a cloud music service in March 2011 that circumvented the need for agreements with individual record companies. Legally, the service required users to upload tracks to Amazon’s servers, a lengthy and cumbersome process depending on Internet speed. It also had limited playback options.”
“With the new agreements, customers who buy music through Amazon’s music store will be given a free amount of storage, while those who choose to store their entire collections, including tracks purchased elsewhere, will pay an annual fee, the people said,” Fixmer and Kucera report. “Amazon’s music service will also be available on iPads and iPhones through the Kindle application for Apple devices, the people said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Kindle app is to iBooks, Amazon’s redundant, late-to-market offering just won’t be anywhere as smooth, seamless and integrated as Apple’s iCloud’s iTunes Match.
Related articles:
Apple CEO Cook: iCloud more than a mere product; it’s a strategy for the next decade – January 25, 2012
Walt Mossberg reviews Apple’s iTunes Match: Recommended to digital music lovers who want all their tunes on all their devices – December 1, 2011
Apple’s matchless iTunes Match – November 15, 2011
How to replace low bit rate tracks with higher quality tracks from iTunes Match – November 15, 2011
Gee, I can’t wait. It will be such a pleasure to use non-native app for my music on laptop and iPhone. Seems like a barrel!
Actually, I can find a lot of music on Amazon that isn’t offed on iTunes.
offered
Same here. It mostly irks me because I can recall Steve Jobs, speaking on the launch of the service, surmising that a time would come when every song ever recorded would be available in iTunes. Yet there’s gobs of music still unavailable there after all these years. I’m sure it’s not Apple’s fault, but if Amazon has some of them, why doesn’t iTunes?
… But to point out the obvious … have you considered that maybe the time hasn’t come yet.
Maybe Steve was elucidating on his ideal, perhaps his dream was thwarted by the labels … Maybe steve died before he could complete his objective.
buy from amazon on cd. Rip to your iTunes on computer and send to cloud.
Just an FYI.
A little Competition never hurts! Keeps Apple on its toes
Amazon is evil.
No, Google is evil. Amazon is just a company. And they are to retailing what the iPod was to MP3 players. Give credit where credit is due. Amazon didn’t come up with Ping. Just enjoy your Apple stuff and be happy for now.
No, Amazon is evil. Their goal is to destroy everyone else – local bricks and mortar stores as well as online competitors – by undercutting everyone else’s prices with unsustainably low prices. $9.99 e-books, anyone? This is why Apple is fighting Amazon and their lapdog Department of (in)Justice in court.
When the competition goes out of business, then Amazon will jack their prices to whatever the market will bear, and then a little more.
BOYCOTT AMAZON!!!
Ho Hum, Yawn … Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … zzzzzzzz ….. zzz ..
“said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.”
Really?
Even thought plans are private and they are acting like that little fact is important to them, they have no problem sharing this info with the public as long as they are not identified as the ones who are releasing this info.
Just leave it at, “said the people, who asked not to be identified”.
Make me sick!!!!!!!