Despite not have all of the details worked out with the music industry on licences, Amazon has beat both Google and Apple to the race to be the first major player to create a place where you can store and play your music collection online.
Since shutting down Lala about a year ago, Apple has been quite on this front and consumers have been left without a solution. There have been a few services available including, Libox, but none with the reputation and backing of the “Big 3”. Google is rumored to be close to a launch of Google Music and Apple might be in the process of enhancing its MobleMe service to include a music locker later in the fall with the new release of iOS. But Amazon has beat them both to the punch and has launched the Amazon Cloud Drive.
CNET has posted a pretty complete review of the new service. Bottom line – when it come to online music storage and playback, Amazon Cloud Drive is now the service to beat. Price is very reasonable (starting with 5 GB free) and easy integration with Amazon MP3 music store.
Intro video from Amazon explains the idea behind the service. Looks like 2011 will be a competitive year in this space which is a good thing for all of us. More than ever there will be no reason not to have your digital music collection backed up!