The Music Industry by Patrik Wikstr & ouml;m

Author:Patrik Wikstr & ouml;m
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley

Cloud storage services

As the price of broadband Internet access has continued to drop, it has become increasingly feasible to store data in the Cloud rather than on a local hard disk drive. Several major technology players (e.g., Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive) as well as a number of start-ups (e.g., Box.net, Dropbox) have launched different types of cloud storage services. Most of them use a Freemium pricing model, meaning that they offer one advertising-funded ‘free’ version and a set of premium versions with additional features and without ads. The basic feature of a cloud storage is fairly simple – it allows you to upload data to a remote location and to access that data from more or less any device with an Internet access. Some of the single-song download service providers – such as Apple, Amazon and Google – have linked their online music retail stores to their cloud storage services so that songs purchased in the store are automatically available in a personal cloud storage that the user can access via streaming from anywhere. While this is a useful but fairly basic addition to their services, it gets somewhat more interesting when cloud storage providers allow users to upload any song to the Cloud. In late 2011 Apple launched iTunes Match, a service that scans the users’ iTunes local libraries and makes all the songs in a library available on Apple iCloud. iTunes Match does not ask whether the songs have been acquired via iTunes, ripped from a CD or illegally downloaded from a file-sharing service. In other words, by subscribing to the service, the users’ potentially bad deeds are forgiven and they are able to listen legally to the songs they have collected in dubious ways over the years. Apple obviously has obtained the rights holders’ permission to offer such a service, but that is not the case for all cloud storage service providers offering similar features. The question whether users are allowed to upload legally purchased songs to their cloud storage is not easily settled. Many rights holders argue that users do need an additional licence and have to pay an extra fee if they want to be able to access their music from multiple devices. Both major cloud storage providers such as Google and smaller players such as MP3Tunes argue that no additional license is required. It remains to be seen how the legal structures and practices for cloud storage services in different parts of the world are eventually settled.

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