Amazon unveiled their new Cloud Drive and Cloud Player products this week, which will allow users to store their files in Amazon’s ‘cloud’ – an online server which can be accessed from any computer. Whilst products like this are nothing new, the Cloud Player function is – it will allow users to stream their music through their web browser from any computer, or to their Android phone using Amazon’s MP3 app. They provide 5GB of storage space free – and only files and music not purchased from Amazon count towards this limit – a fantastic incentive for users to purchase music from the Amazon MP3 store, as they will essentially receive unlimited music storage.

Google and Apple have both been racing to release their own versions of these products but Amazon have seemingly appeared from nowhere with Cloud Player, baffling industry experts. Interestingly, Google and Apple have been having issues coming to licensing agreements with major record labels to ensure users are not on shaky legal ground when uploading their MP3 files to a remote storage location. It appears Amazon have failed to observe this obstacle, so it is possible that we could see litigation arising from this surprise release.

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