Amazon Cloud Drive music player expands to Apple iOS devices

May 9, 2011 | By Jason Ankeny

Digital retail giant Amazon.com has quietly updated its fledgling cloud-based music service to extend the platform to devices running Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS mobile operating system. Amazon Cloud Drive launched in late March, enabling consumers to securely store music in the cloud for anytime/anywhere access via Android-based smartphones and tablets as well as PCs and Macs--TechCrunch reports that consumers may now access the Amazon Cloud Player via the Safari web browser on their iPhone or iPad and begin listening to their music library. The article states that users will likely see a prompt warning them that their browser is not supported--that prompt should be ignored.

All Amazon customers automatically begin with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage to upload their digital music library, with any consumer who purchases a full-length Amazon MP3 album upgraded to 20 GB of space--users can store their music in AAC or MP3 formats, with all content uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. Customers may cherrypick favorite songs, artists, albums or playlists, or simply upload their entire music library; in addition, all new Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free, and do not count against the customer's storage quota.

While industry onlookers have long expected Apple to introduce an iTunes cloud solution, the initiative has so far failed to materialize. In March, Bloomberg reported Apple was in talks with the four major record labels to give iTunes users expanded access to their digital music across multiple devices running the computing giant's iOS operating system. The new deal also would offer permanent backup of music purchases in the event the original files are damaged or lost.

Some insiders believe Apple has delayed its cloud service plans to expand the initiative into video streaming. Sources inside Hollywood studios indicate Apple plans to offer "digital shelves" enabling consumers to store movies and television content on the company's servers. Others speculate the holdup is directly related to Apple's new $1 billion server farm in North Carolina--multiple sources have said the servers will make up the backbone of the cloud solution. Speaking last month during Apple's annual shareholder meeting, CFO Peter Oppenheimer stated the facility will serve as a hub for iTunes as well as Apple's MobileMe data sync solution.

For more:
- read this TechCrunch article