The Glade 4.0

So, I've been considering creating a second copy of music in downgraded 320k format to put on the cloud somewhere. Right now, in my mind, Google music is winning, as they have a 20,000 song limit (instead of a 5gb limit, like apple and amazon) and a pretty nice interface. I'll still be retaining my master lossless archival copies for home, this is more for backup and listening on the go and at work.

Which service do you guys prefer, if any, and why?

I've been using Google Music. My only gripe is that the streaming web page doesn't appear to recognize media buttons on keyboards.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Good to know. I do wish they had a desktop player, maybe integrated with gtalk, but everyone appears to be moving away from standalone apps and towards full web, so that's doubtful.

EDIT: Did a quick search, I wonder if this will do what you want Kaffis? http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/desktop-google-music-player-listen-to-your-favorite-music-tracks/

Ooh, yeah, I bet it would.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Annnnd I've found a downside.

My obsession with editing meta-tags to ensure my Google music collection is flawless.

Goodbye, time.

I like Amazon, because I like Amazon.

Also, if you have Prime, you get unlimited music storage at Amazon, as well as 20GB for other stuffs.

True, but after the "trial period", doesn't that go to 20$ per year (for the 20GB/unlimited music program?)

Uh, I dunno. It's a feature of Prime, best I can tell. I didn't do anything to purchase a higher-than-standard storage package, but I have unlimited music.

I too have unlimited music at Amazon as a Prime member (I didn't purchase anything extra).

I don't know that the specific terms are, and it may have been some kind of early adopter promotion.

I don't use the Amazon cloud player much, as I generally have all of my music local on a hard drive within reach. I use the Cloud as a backup.

I use the cloud player particularly so that I don't junk up my MacBooks Air and Pro with local media. Same thing'll be in place for the Kindle Fire.

One thing google music doesn't have in its current form - the ability to download my own albums. I can put it all up, but if I want to do a quick download and burn to CD for the car/etc while at work or something, nope. There are some ways around it, but it's all pretty messy, and Amazon has it built in. Hopefully they'll add it.

My only gripe with google music is that the android app doesn't mute or attenuate when using gps turn by turn navigation, unlike every other music app I've ever used. I've submitted it to Google as a bug/feature request, but who knows if they'll even see it.

It is still in beta, I suppose.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

When you say unlimited music, do you mean unlimited storage of music purchased at Amazon? That's what I've got (20gb of free storage and music purchased at Amazob doesn't count towards the limit), wondering if it's the same.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Nah Vindi, they updated it after google released music, now this is what it says on the amazon cloud accounts page:

"Amazon Cloud Drive
• All paid Amazon Cloud Drive plans now include unlimited space for eligible music.
• All Amazon MP3 purchases saved to or uploaded to your Cloud Drive will not count towards your storage limit."

Eligible music is:
What files are eligible for storage in unlimited music space?
To be eligible for unlimited music space, files must be music recordings in MP3 (.mp3) or AAC (.m4a, iTunes non-DRM files) format and must be less than 100 MB in size. All lossless files with the .m4a extension are not eligible for storage in unlimited music space.

Files purchased from a digital music store, such as the Amazon MP3 Store, and files imported to your computer from a music CD will often meet these criteria. Files that meet the criteria don't count against your Cloud Drive storage quota if your storage plan includes unlimited music space.

Note: Music recordings in other formats, lossless files, or audio recordings that are not of songs and non-audio files (even if in MP3 or AAC format) are not eligible for unlimited music space and will count against your Cloud Drive storage space.

It's the "paid cloud drive plans" and "limited time" that gets me.

Ahh, got it, thanks. Just looked and saw this:



Looks like I've got some uploading to do!

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

I'm starting to think about uploading my collection to both amazon and google. Why? Because it's THERE. (And free for now. When amazon starts to try to charge me, then I'll probably change my mind)

Yup.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

When I talked about Google Music to a paranoid friend of mine he said, "Wow. It's amazing that Google is convincing people to upload their music to them."

I had to point out that knowing exactly what you listen to and own are the least "interesting" bits of data they likely have on him or anyone else. He didn't say anything after that.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Yeah, I had that flash of "giving away information", but quickly realized that Amazon knows so much about me that uploading my music is moot.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Yup, I definitely went through the paranoia of "oh man, they're going to know every album I own/upload/etc".

Also of "what if there's an album in there that I've lost the CD of, and the RIAA jackboots gestapo shows up at my house asking for proof of ownership?"

Then I figured there's millions of people using this service, and with the release of the Fire there will be millions more. Safety in numbers, I suppose.

Also, I've made so many purchases through amazon, they have about the clearest picture of my consumer habits as anyone on this planet already.

I've got 74 gigabytes of anime mp3s >_>

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Amazon says "unlimited", upload away!

Hey, iTunes Match finally went live.

Wish it wasn't 24.99 a year to host music you already own. Still, will save a lot of time initially.