Now this post may be a little different from the norm but bear
with me. It should be very insightful for you well at least I’m hoping. If not…don’t judge me Mr/Ms. Know it all! HA
HA HA!
Ok let’s hop to it.
I often make mention of my cloud…and usually I am greeted
with a look of confusion so…let’s start there.
What is a cloud?
Well according to the infamous Wikipedia it’s… “a
visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary
body.”
Ok now that is the text
book term for those fluffy white poofs in the sky (yeah I said poofs…whatever!)
at any rate that’s all great, however, that is not the type of cloud to which I
am referring.
Clouds are a new way technology is allowing us to
store and retrieve information without using up space on our devices (i.e.
computers, smart phones, tablets etc).
It’s also referred to as Cloud Computing. According to InfoWorld… “Cloud
computing providers deliver applications via the internet,
which are accessed from and desktop and mobile apps, while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote
location.”
Now these clouds are used by all and for personal as well as
business use. This post will be
basically regarding the personal use and music.
Now I mainly use my clouds to store music some use it for
videos and pictures as well. I have
around 5,000-6,000 songs in my cloud and growing. Of course if I stored that on my Smartphone, iPod,
tablet etc depending on size I would be out of space and in some cases unable
to store it all.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want that hogging up all
my device space. Well that’s where the
awesomeness of the cloud comes in. You
simply find a cloud service you like…(I’ll go over those in a second). You then simply upload the music library from
your computer into the cloud. Most of
the cloud services have an app for your Smartphone you download the
corresponding app for your cloud sign in and BAM where ever you are you have access to stream you own music
where ever without taking up phone on your respective device.
The companies that are providing cloud services are growing
by the day…but I’ll go over some of the more popular ones to give you a sense
of how they operate.
First up is Amazon
Cloud Service:
Now with Amazon you get 5gb of storage for free. This will allow you to store about 1,000
songs. There is a mobile app for this if
you have an Android or Blackberry. Unfortunately Apple doesn’t have an
application for this any longer it was yanked from the Apple Store since of
course Apple kills anything that tried to compete with it. So if you want to use this service on your
iPhone you will have to go through your safari web browser.
Pros: Easy to
use, if you buy a CD from Amazon they will update your cloud to unlimited to
storage for a year. You can share what
your listening to with your social network site.
Cons: Once you
put music into it you cannot alter your music tracks. i.e. you have songs listed as Track 1 and you
want to give them the correct name you’ll have to delete it from your
cloud. Fix it on your computer then
upload again.
If you are interested in this cloud service you can get more
info or set it up here:
Amazon pricing set
up:
I recommend this
Cloud. I actually have one… this is my
Amazon cloud:
Mobile App view:
Next up is the Apple
iCloud:
I personally haven’t used this one because I don’t have an
apple device. Well my Ipod touch but daughter mainly uses that. Any who here
are some of the basics with the iCloud if you don’t have an iPhone you can move
to the next cloud. The iCloud is only
compatible with Apple products. To be even more specific iPhones running at
least iOS5, have iTunes 10.5 and your iPhone must be 3Gs or newer. So if you actually meet all those criteria
then here we go. Works the same pretty much across the board once you set the
cloud up you can update your setting that whenever you upload music to iTunes
then it will sync with your cloud.
Here is the blurb from the Apple site:
"iCloud is so much more
than a hard drive in the sky. It makes it quick and effortless to access just
about everything on the devices you use every day. iCloud automatically and securely stores your
content so it's always available to your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.
It gives you access to your music, apps, latest photos, and more from whichever
device you happen to be using. And it keeps your email, contacts, and calendars
up to date across all your devices. No syncing required. No management
required. In fact, no anything required. iCloud does it all for you."
Now what you do you get with this service:
5gb free with the iCloud.
Extra storage cost:
BUT AHA!! Good ol Apple the Kings of nickel and diming its’
loyal followers to death…this is only compatible with music you bought
from iTunes…if you want to add music that you didn’t purchase from iTunes then
you have to get another service compatible to the iCloud called iTunes match
which cost an additional 24.99/year.
Pros: Neat, clean interface, auto syncing, you can also put photos, videos and documents in the icloud
Cons: Expensive, have to buy iTunes match to sync my other
music I may have on my computer from CD’s etc, only compatible with Apple products,
oh yeah EXPENSIVE compared to competitor.
*side note* now do you see why they yanked the competitors apps from the itunes store. They are cheaper and you get more space for less.
More info can be found here: http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/
I recommend if you have an apple product and plan on using everything its capable of besides music.
Next is Google Music
Cloud:
This one by far is
my favorite it’s a Google product and I love Google. However, let me give you the skinny on Google
Music. Here is the a synopsis of the
Google Cloud from their site…
“Google Music stores
all of your music online so that you can save space on your computers and
mobile devices and easily access your collection from anywhere you want to
listen.”
What you get with Google Music Cloud:
You can add up to 20,000 songs that’s roughly I think about
80GB’s for…wait for it….. FREE!!! (whoo
hoooo)
Also with the Google Music cloud you get free music if you
are Android from the Android Market.
There are hundreds of free songs.
There is an app for it on Android. Although Apple has restricted a Google app
put out by Google there are several 3 party Google Music apps for iPhone. I think what I have heard most people like is
the iPhone app gMusic. Blackberry users access google.com/music from their
browser.
Pros: Ease of use, seems to be most compatible, free music, most storage for free, if you are on Google + you can share songs with friends, auto syncs with whatever program you want including iTunes, editable song information.
Cons: If you have a
large music library to upload all at once be prepared to start the upload in
the morning and go about your day and hope it’s done by the time you get home but once its uploaded your good. This is Music only cloud so if you have
pictures or videos you want to upload this Cloud system doesn’t have that capability.
More info here: http://music.google.com/about/
If you’re looking for music only….I HIGHLY recommend this
one.
Here is a screen shot of my Google Music Cloud:
Mobile App view:
Lastly is..
Have your own Cloud
at home. You can purchase a home
media cloud device for your home which you upload your information to it and
you stream from it where ever you are.
Some of them I’ve heard of or seen are the PogoPlug, Iomega and you can
Google others.
These devices start with 5gb of space and the lowest price I
have seen is 37.99 ranging up into the hundreds. Also the streaming quality and speed depends
on your internet connection at home.
Pros: Everything is in house, if the services ever decide to go up on fees on begin charging fee’s you have no worries. If you pirate music or movies this is a safe way to put your info in storage and have no fears of being caught. You can share files with friends with no restrictions.
Cons: Streaming is spotty unless your internet connection is
rock solid and fast, if you have a blackberry or something other than an iPhone
or Android most likely it may not be compatible. If you need more space you have to get
another device or start deleting stuff to make room. In a lot of the cases after looking at these
online is you have to also buy a mobile device to actually be able to stream to
your device.
All in all, I guess I’m impartial to this one…I have no interest in it but if you want everything to remain in house and are very concerned about ultimate privacy then this might be the route for you.
If you want more info on having your own in house cloud here
is the link to PogoPlug:
Well this has just been my brief review, opinion and break down of
some of the major music cloud services out there.Hope this has been helpful
for you. If you have any questions feel
free to ask. I'm off to enjoy my plethora of music. Blog ya later!
