Amazon's new offering of unlimited music space on the Amazon Cloud

AMAZON OFFERS UNLIMITED MUSIC SPACE FOR $20/YR, AND FREE STORAGE FOR ALL MP3's PURCHASED FROM AMAZON, PLUS SUPPORT FOR THE IPAD

Here is the new area for managing your Amazon Cloud Drive and seeing the storage plans.

  See earlier basic information (now expanded to drop limitations on space when music is involved)

  The earlier Amazon offer of buying one low-cost album to become eligible to a total of 20 gigs of storage space has ended.

  That has been replaced by a

  . limited-time offer to choose a storage space upgrade and get unlimited music space along with the increased general storage space.

  . free storage space for all mp3's purchased from Amazon, including music purchased before the Cloud feature was born.  All Amazon customers are alloted 5 gigs of basic, general storage space, but the Amazon-purchased mp3's won't count against storage-space limits.

  Unfortunately, the storage-upgrade feature isn't available, at this time, in 27 countries, which are listed in the table at the bottom of this blog article.


MORE ON THE NEW OFFERINGS BY AMAZON
  What's different today then?  Instead of getting an upgrade to a total of 20 gigs for year 1 when buying one mp3 album, customers in countries eligible for the upgrades can now receive an unlimited amount of space for music stored (and streamable in the U.S.) with purchase of any of the storage upgrades.

  Amazon-purchased mp3's will just not count against a customer's storage quota.

  The lowest-cost upgrade option (beyond the basic, free 5 gigs of space that everyone gets automatically) is for 20 gigs of total general storage space per year.

  How it worked before -- for those who did buy mp3 albums after the Cloud features launched.
  Under the original plan, I had bought a low-cost mp3 album and found myself with an upgrade to the 20 gigs per year storage plan for my Amazon Cloud of music and data.

 I subsequently bought another low-cost album (99c) and received another 20 gigs of storage space for a future year.  That was the end of bonuses for rebuying any albums though.
  Just a reminder: Cloud storage space can be used also for videos, photos, and documents.

How this affects Kindle users
  Anything we upload to our Amazon 'Cloud' drive is also downloadable to our various devices, and from our computers, we can copy or move some mp3's to our Kindle's "music" folder, which is on the same level as the "documents" folder.

  Player limitations: the Kindle 2, 3, and DX all play the mp3's in the order they're installed and in the background while you're reading.  The Kindle 1 plays them entirely in random order).

  However, if you want to be able to select an mp3 to play, you can put some in the 'Audible' folder and then they'll show up in the menu, but it'll no longer be treated as background music, which means you won't be able to read a Kindle book at the same time using this method.

  Remember also that mp3 files tend to be several times larger than book files, so it's best not to put too many on the Kindle.  (The Kindle doesn't stream music from the Net, of course.)


WORDING from Amazon's announcement Wednesday in its press release (emphases mine):

' "Customers are already enjoying Cloud Drive and Cloud Player and now for just $20 a year, customers can get unlimited space for music," said Craig Pape Director of Amazon Music.

  "Additionally, we are adding free storage for all MP3s purchased from Amazon MP3 and support for the iPad..." '

  In March, Amazon help pages for Cloud features explained:

'...When you save your Amazon MP3 Store purchases directly to your Cloud Drive, they don't take up any of your storage space and are always stored for free. '

  What is new here is that before yesterday, this unlimited storage for Amazon-purchased mp3's applied only to NEW Amazon mp3 purchases.

  TODAY, even your OLDER Amazon mp3 purchases will not count against any of your Cloud storage space and will always be stored for free there.  This had been much requested.

Unlimited Space for Music (ANY mp3's, purchased anywhere) for $20 per year
Amazon's press release explains:

' Now, for a limited time, Amazon customers who purchase a Cloud Drive storage plan will receive unlimited space for their MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files.  This offer is available for even the lowest price plan: $20/year for 20 GB of file storage plus unlimited space for music.  Customers can visit (www.amazon.com/clouddrive/manage) to purchase a Cloud Drive storage plan and receive unlimited space for music. '

Amazon Mp3 Purchases

' Customers can now store all of their Amazon MP3 purchases for free in Cloud Drive, including future MP3 purchases as well as all purchases made before the launch of Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.
  MP3s purchased from Amazon MP3 and stored in Amazon Cloud Drive will not count against a customer's storage quota. '

Cloud Player for Web on iPad
Earlier Amazon offered Cloud Player for Web and for Android.
Now they're offering Cloud Player for Web on iPad also.  From the press release:

' Amazon customers will be able to play music stored in the cloud on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac, PC, and now on their iPad.  "Cloud Player for Web has been optimized to offer customers streaming playback of their Cloud Drive music using the Safari browser for iPad. To access Cloud Player for iPad, customers simply open their Safari browser and visit (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer) to start listening to their music.

Storage for Music and More

'All customers automatically start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage to begin uploading their digital music library, and for a limited time, those who purchase any Cloud Drive storage plan will receive unlimited space for music at no additional cost.

  In addition to unlimited space for music, Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files, including photos, videos and documents which are stored securely and available via web browser on any computer.

  Customers who qualified for 20 GB of free storage from earlier promotions will receive the unlimited space for music at no additional cost.

In March, Amazon launched Cloud Drive (www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon Cloud Player for Web (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer), and Amazon Cloud Player for Android (www.amazon.com/cloudplayerandroid).

Together, these services enable customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, and now iPad, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free. '

Cloud FAQ.  The Cloud FAQ includes a table that shows the countries for which storage upgrades are not available at this time.

' Where is Amazon Cloud Drive [not] available?

The 5 GB free storage plan is available to all Amazon.com customers, however further upgrades to the storage plan are currently unavailable in the following countries:

Austria	Belgium	Bulgaria
Cyprus	Czech Republic	Denmark
Estonia	Finland	France
Germany	Greece	Hungary
Ireland	Italy	Latvia
Lithuania	Luxembourg	Malta
Netherlands	Poland	Portugal
Romania	Slovakia	Slovenia
Spain	Sweden	United Kingdom

'

OTHER NEWS: Hundreds of new jobs in a few Amazon fulfillment centers
With Amazon's announcements this week of the opening of 1) fulfillment centers in Plainfield, Indiana and Phoenix, Arizona, each one "creating hundreds of new jobs" and 2) the Allentown, Pennsylvania fulfillment center now "hiring for hundreds of full-time jobs with great benefits," the Amazon tablet rumors can only increase.

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Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's)   K3 Special ($114)   K3-3G Special ($164)   DX Graphite

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.