Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon has just launched an online storage service called Amazon Cloud Drive. It can be accessed through a web browser and from any computer, any operating system and by mobile devices too. OK, so that's not unusual, but it is free and you get 5Gb of online storage space for all your files. What's more, if you buy an MP3 music album from Amazon your free storage space gets bumped up to 20Gb, and you can  store your music online too. Just imagine, you can buy MP3 music and store it in the cloud where it can be accessed by any internet-connected device you own!

To claim your 5Gb of free online storage and start uploading files you just need to go to Amazon Cloud Drive and sign in with your Amazon store login name and password. If you've never ever bought anything from Amazon (is there anyone that hasn't?) you can sign up. If 5 or 20Gb isn't enough for you, it is possible to purchase larger amounts of storage ranging from 50Gb ($50/year) to 1Tb ($1000/year).

If you buy a music album from Amazon in MP3 form there is an option to have it placed in your online storage. You can then download it or play it whenever you like. In fact, Amazon has a Cloud Player which works in any web browser and there is an Android app too. Using Amazon Cloud Player you can play your music purchases from anywhere by streaming them over the internet. When you log into your Amazon account you'll see a link to the Cloud Player at the top of the page.

This raises questions of legality and it is a gray area that isn't very clear. Are you allowed to do this or not? More to the point, will the music companies allow it?