Amazon Cloud Player Now on Your Desktop, But Will It Make It to Your Ears?

It can’t be overstated how much cloud technology is changing the entertainment landscape. The television industry seems to be getting all of the press lately as Internet streaming services like Netflix continue to pull viewers from the familiar confines of broadcast and cable television schedules, but the music industry is undergoing a streaming revolution as well, and Amazon is right there pushing it along in its own cloudy way.

Amazon’s Cloud Player is the company’s streaming music solution: a free-to-use service that allows the user to access an unlimited storage of already purchased Amazon songs in the cloud. The service has so far been available through a web application and various on-the-go devices via a mobile app, allowing iOS users to bring all of the songs with them wherever they want (in case iTunes just wasn’t working for their lifestyle). Amazon has now taken the next step in the process of serving all customer music needs wherever they might be with the launch of an Amazon Cloud Player desktop app for PC.

A streaming service is all well and good until you find yourself needing tunes with no satisfactory Internet connection around. Until Internet is available absolutely everywhere, the solution comes with the ability to sync the media you need locally. The Amazon Cloud Player desktop app allows that and more.

Not only will owners of the app have the ability to access their music library from all of their devices, but they will also have the ability to upload up to 250 songs purchased from non-Amazon vendors. The desktop app brings with it the ability to scan a computer for music that hasn’t yet been uploaded to the Amazon Storage Locker to be included in the library.

The ability to sync and upload is a necessary next step for the Amazon Cloud Player to meet its competition on the battlefield. However, there is still one major drawback with the service: purchasing music. Rdio has the right idea in this respect. For music fans, each Tuesday brings with it a new wave of ear candy, begging to be listened to at least once, and the streaming service gives its subscribers instant access to nearly all of it.

Young people, who are have always been the primary consumer demographic for the music industry, are not used to paying for music. It’s all about access with as little inconvenience as possible. It might be too much to ask for Amazon Cloud Player and similar pay-per-track solutions to adopt this sort of business model, but, in the end, what the industry comes down to is money and convenience. It has even been suggested that Apple (News - Alert), kings of the online music store, is looking into adopting an Rdio-style model, after ten years of success. Will users want to pay for every track they’ve sought out and chosen for their cloud, or will they pay a small fee every month and save themselves both money and time spent making a decision. Let’s wait and see.