Cloud Computing and Music
The way you store, access and interact with your digital music collection is about to change over the coming years. You’ll no longer store your music files on a hard drive or flash drive but rather in a cloud of servers scattered around the world. Your net-devices will access your library collection wirelessly, streaming from remote servers. Exchange your Notebook for a Netbook because you’ll no longer think about downloading music files to your computer… you won’t need a massive storage system anymore. Music players, such as the iPod Touch, already has the capabilities to mobilize your entire music library.
All of this will be done through ‘cloud computing,’ the buzz word of industry insiders in `08. You’ll no longer store your files on your personal computer. Instead, your files will be scattered in a cloud of servers around the world. Everything from your operating system to your digital photos will no longer be stored on your local PC.
Digital stores, such as iTunes, will most likely offer unlimited access to millions of songs for a monthly fee, similar to Rhapsody or Ruckus but on a much larger scale. This has been debated in the past and many suspected it would happen sooner, but the advent of cloud computing will force the recording industry to face the issue. Artists will be paid royalties based on song plays and not sales, splitting revenues from ads sold via page views.
There is a new easy-to-use site called CloudSound, a perfect tool for record labels, bands, blogs and promotion agencies. Create an account and you can upload songs, add information about the song. From there you can either keep the song private or share it publicly. You’re given a dropbox that you can share with your friends or on your website. The dropbox enables other people to upload music into your CloudSound account. You can embed songs or playlists and enable others to directly download the files. With an open API developers will create powerful tools for CloudSound; yesterday they launched the Cloud Player where you can create playlists (and smart playlists) from songs uploaded by CloudSound members. The purpose of CloudSound isn’t to store all of your music, but it does hint at what is coming.
The original founder of Mp3.com has launched a new service called Mp3tunes. Mp3tunes offers 2gb of free space to upload music (you can pay for more space if need be). Once you have added music to your locker you can stream your collection either via a Flash player or through an M3U or ASX playlist. Download the application to your phone and you can access your music anywhere, or stream your music on your net-aware device (such as a Nintendo Wii). Though the desktop apps for uploading your music are still a little glitchy, keep an eye on Mp3tunes’ development. Interestingly, this originally put Mp3.com out of business due to industry lawsuits.
None of these sites offer the perfect service, but cloud computing is still new. Whoever designs an easy to use site that enables you to upload your entire music library easily, offers access to any net-aware device, has money left for a sizeable marketing campaign, and is able to negotiate with the major record labels to avoid a lawsuit will be the next major web service to shape the internet.