11–20 of 114 posts
"Cloud based" implies that some processing is going on remotely, which it clearly isn't. It's just a download hosted on a CDN. Are we allowed to just slap the term on anything Internet based now?
"Available to US customers only."[0] That sucks. "MP3 versions of tracks from CDs purchased from Amazon since 1998 and that are eligible for AutoRip will be delivered to your Cloud Player library." That rocks. [0] http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=...
It turns out the only album that I purchased on CD that was eligible was an album I bought as a gag gift for a friend.
Here I was expecting some awesome free* MP3's but instead I got Barry Manilow.
My immediate reaction to stuff like this is skeptical. The whole concept of "owning" a "cd" seems so artificial now.
Amazon's doing it right, here; if you want convenience, OK. If you want to manage the MP3s yourself, OK. In contrast to their ebooks or video.
How about offering a Spotify-like streaming service? How about making CloudPlayer free for the first 20,000 songs like Google Play? How about making a web player that doesn't make me feel like I'm in Target? What about a web store that's really accessible for indie musicians (that means without labels). I really want to like Amazon Music, but at this point it doesn't really feel like a competitor in my demographic (college, computer-savvy).
Edit: Those who think that buying CD's is supporting artists should know that if you buy an MP3 from them instead they generally get a lot more profit.
For me, I own a car from 2001 so CDs are great. I buy CDs at concerts/shows, as I've long surpassed the appropriate number of t-shirts to own. I like supporting the artist, particularly if the artist is doing a signing. My girlfriend buys CDs, from Amazon, just because she likes having a physical things. She has been griping that it is a pain to her that she has to rip/burn it herself!
If only the publishers would let them do this with books!
I'm sure they will in 5-10 years. The ebook/ereader market is rather 'new' compared to the digital audio market, at this point everyone has likely already purchased a digital version of their music or pirated it so there won't be any lost sales (same idea for iTunes match and other matching/cloud services). It's interesting to see the music industry keep moving forward and allowing this type of stuff to happen (and t…
The reason seems to be exactly what you pointed out - the music industry's got a 10 year head start on this because technology arrived sooner that grew the market and pretty much forced the labels' hands. Broadband, Napster, iPods, and the industry's ridiculous DRM responses to piracy (and the pain & suffering that came with it) led the labels to realize a common sense approach was the only thing that would save them.
The movie studios certainly still haven't learned this yet - I feel like we're at the point with movies that we were with music in the mid-2000s. Those were the dark days when there were a dozen different competing DRM standards for downloads, and the record labels were releasing CDs that were deliberately damaged so as to not be rippable (or worse, that covertly introduced rootkits that interfered with access to the CDROM drive).