Amazon Cloud Player adds iTunes Match-like scan and match
Amazon on Tuesday greatly enhanced its Cloud Player service with new scan and match technology, competing with Apple's own iTunes Match.
Amazon promises that its Cloud Player now offers users faster music import using scan and match technology. Matched files are also upgraded to 256-Kbps-quality audio.
Future Amazon MP3 purchases are automatically delivered to a user's Cloud Player, and eligible past Amazon MP3 purchases are also delivered without having to import them.
Amazon Cloud Player also offers users the ability to edit song and album information, including tracks and title numbers. It also gives the ability to import information for matched files directly from Amazon's catalog.
Users can import up to 250 songs fro free in Cloud player, or subscribe to Cloud Player Premium for $24.99 per year and import up to 250,000 songs. That's the same price per year as Apple's iTunes Match, but Amazon's service offers considerably more songs than the 25,000 cap on matched songs through iTunes Match.
Amazon launched its cloud-based music service for the Web and for Android devices last March before Apple publicly unveiled iTunes Match. Previously, users had to upload their songs manually to use the service, while Apple's iTunes Match introduced the ability to match locally stored songs with copies available for sale on iTunes.
In addition to adding the new matching feature, Amazon also has a Cloud Player application for iOS that launched in the App Store last month. The "Amazon Cloud Player" application is a free download for iPhone.
Amazon promises that its Cloud Player now offers users faster music import using scan and match technology. Matched files are also upgraded to 256-Kbps-quality audio.
Future Amazon MP3 purchases are automatically delivered to a user's Cloud Player, and eligible past Amazon MP3 purchases are also delivered without having to import them.
Amazon Cloud Player also offers users the ability to edit song and album information, including tracks and title numbers. It also gives the ability to import information for matched files directly from Amazon's catalog.
Users can import up to 250 songs fro free in Cloud player, or subscribe to Cloud Player Premium for $24.99 per year and import up to 250,000 songs. That's the same price per year as Apple's iTunes Match, but Amazon's service offers considerably more songs than the 25,000 cap on matched songs through iTunes Match.
Amazon launched its cloud-based music service for the Web and for Android devices last March before Apple publicly unveiled iTunes Match. Previously, users had to upload their songs manually to use the service, while Apple's iTunes Match introduced the ability to match locally stored songs with copies available for sale on iTunes.
In addition to adding the new matching feature, Amazon also has a Cloud Player application for iOS that launched in the App Store last month. The "Amazon Cloud Player" application is a free download for iPhone.
Comments
interesting...
Google's music service is better. I got my entire iTunes collection onto the Google drive service for free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
Google's music service is better. I got my entire iTunes collection onto the Google drive service for free.
^ Google doesn't have matching.
And what's with the 250,000 song limit? Nobody is going to have that much music (except for the digital hoarders) so all they're really doing is trying to make it sound like they offer 10x the storage of Apple.
I have about 50,000 songs so I don't qualify for iTunes Match. This gets rid of the limitation, plus with the Sonos client coming up soon it's a no brainer. I can retire my local backup drive and server, yippie! Thanks Amazon!
[EDIT] I just found out that I had Cloud Player Premium free for a month -- don't know if it's because I'm a Prime customer or an existing Cloud Player customer.
I was thinking the same thing. Or DJs but they was lossless so they would never use this kind of thing
I'd say you answered your question.
I think very few people truly have bought and listen to more than 25,000 tracks. I'd say on one of the reasons NAND-based iPods took off so fast despite their prices being higher than HDD-based iPods with less storage is because most people simply don't have more than a couple thousand songs they want to carry with them.
Good question. I guess that all depends on how they access the file.
Doesn't the Sonos hardware limit the music library to 40,000? It was upped from 30,000 but my knowledge is limited to their hardware...
Can I re-download MP3s after matching, or does this only work with their Cloud Player?
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordJohnWhorfin
I have about 50,000 songs so I don't qualify for iTunes Match. This gets rid of the limitation, plus with the Sonos client coming up soon it's a no brainer. I can retire my local backup drive and server, yippie! Thanks Amazon!
Me too - and I've been waiting for Apple to up the iTunes Match so I can take advantage of it. And yes, every single song was either ripped from a physical CD that I bought and still possess OR paid for and downloaded legally. I'm not a music hoarder or a DJ. I just like music variety. And I believe in paying for music - many of my friends are working musicians and artists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee
^ Google doesn't have matching.
And what's with the 250,000 song limit? Nobody is going to have that much music (except for the digital hoarders) so all they're really doing is trying to make it sound like they offer 10x the storage of Apple.
Matching is one of the new features. I'm likely to try this out as it's free (so far) with Prime. I don't like that it's MP3, but I'm going to try to match the ones iTunes couldn't (about 25% of my collection). I really like that it works with Sonos, that's a huge plus in my book. So far, the software/web interface seems pretty weak and limited by not being fully native, but I could easily see myself using this.
The limit of 25K songs for me means that I can't use iTunes Match for anything but scrubbing, which it works great for, but that's it for me. Really, 25K isn't that much, especially if you're older and have been into music like I have for so long. I'm just over 100K, and I know many with far bigger collections.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PowerMacBandit
Do they match secure iTunes songs?
The answer to that will always be no. Nothing else does anything with secure iTunes (DRM) songs. The good news is that you can now redownload those songs from iTunes without the DRM, and then yes, Amazon will accept them (as will anything else that handles AAC MP4s).
Prefer the Spotify subscription model - nothing to download or upload and much cheaper in the long run.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut
The answer to that will always be no. Nothing else does anything with secure iTunes (DRM) songs. The good news is that you can now redownload those songs from iTunes without the DRM, and then yes, Amazon will accept them (as will anything else that handles AAC MP4s).
If I re-download DRM songs from iTunes, don't I have to pay something to get the songs without DRM? If so, why not just burn your DRM songs to a CD and then re-import those songs to iTunes as this would effectively remove the DRM?
It would and yu get them back as their 256Kbps AAC. Just make sure to use a CD-RW so you can reuse the same CD i you have more than a single disc of DRMed tracks.
Further fuel to the Amazon phone fire.... Get the ecosystem going and scaled, launch hardware to complement it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
Doesn't the Sonos hardware limit the music library to 40,000? It was upped from 30,000 but my knowledge is limited to their hardware...
I would be interested to know this. I have been weighing up a Sonos vs Airplay system. In many ways its a closed vs open argument. Airplay is good and seems to always be getting better but its not quite at the Sonos level yet.
The Sonos limitation has to do with the index tables that need to be maintained for the SMB shares. I suspect the Amazon Cloud Player client is immune from this limitation -- which doesn't mean it won't have its own. That would be a good question to ask on the Sonos forums :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
Doesn't the Sonos hardware limit the music library to 40,000? It was upped from 30,000 but my knowledge is limited to their hardware...
My current library is almost 51,067 songs and Sonos is working fine for me. I have 8 zones in my house and the system is bulletproof.
Actually a lot of the songs I have from iTunes are no longer available from iTunes. Also in fact Amazon does match your iTunes song secure or not. They don't unencrypt of course. It's just a simple song match not a conversion.