David Starkweather

Amazon just announced their new Cloud Drive/Media Player. Is this the next coming of the iPod? Probably not but I believe it is the start of the next wave of digital media players.

The future of Ipods and mp3 players is not a larger disc space, it’s connectivity. It’s utilizing products like the Amazon Cloud Media Player and iTunes (a modified version) where your mp3 players connects to your online storage center instead of playing music directly from your device.

There are obviously a few things holding this vision back. One being connectivity, the other being more streaming devices that can actually handle this data push.

A lot of cell phone companies are trying to limit a users band width or at least up the charges for ‘power users’ and if you start streaming all of your music through your phone, you will undoubtedly be considered a power user.

In my limited experience using the Cloud Player it has good bones but ultimatly needs a little work before taking over. It’s a great option for non-Apple users like myself and as a storage center for downloaded music it works well. However, trying to stream the music over my phone left me frustrated and disapointed to the point that I just downloaded the music to my phone instead. But is that really a fault of Amazon’s system or more likely just my cell carriers data signal (side note: I’m listening to my cloud player on my laptop right now and it’s working well….plus I didn’t have to store my music on my laptop to access it…plus 1 for Amazon).

The Cloud Player is a great idea and its absolutely a step in the right direction for Amazon and the future of digital music. I’m taking advantage of the Cloud drive and I see it as another reason why I love Amazon.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. You can get a free upgrade to your account for your first year if you activate your Cloud player.

Check it out here.

Before I go…if you need a good album to buy and try out on your new cloud drive…I just bought and recommend the below albums.