Like you said, the "cloud" is a service that stores your files remotely (out on the internet) so you can access them from anywhere and never have to worry about backing them up or losing them. Security is a concern as is internet access.

Curious what the appeal is here. Off-site backup? Download your music files onto other people's machines as form of sharing? Currently, using audiogalaxy for ever-present streaming access to my whole collection (which is backed up to an external HD) and am not really seeing the additional benefit of a music cloud. Sell it to me.

For me, it's two fold: One, as Patrick noted, it's another layer of protection (although at this point redundancy is a way of life as I have 3 physical hard drive backups.)

The other is that with these cloud services, you are also getting a music player and access to all your music on the go. I am on the go all the time and have 4G access virtually everywhere I go so there is zero lag if I want to access something.

BTW, I plopped down the 20 bucks and left my collection uploading before I went on vacation (where I am now).

Yail, how can i select my entire collection to upload? Is there a way to target my Music folder instead of just uploading 1 album at a time?

Yeah, I never go anywhere remote with no access so I plan on only having to carry around a phone and stream all my music wherever I go instead of having to carry a phone and an iPod. So far it has been working like a charm. Already planning on giving away the iPod if all continues to go well with this. Plus, no worries about my storage failing...although I still keep FLAC backups of everything myself.

I think Amazon is the way to go for me just because of the unlimited space. With Google Music, I already am over the 20,000 song limit and will obviously be adding more. Hell, I trimmed down my iPod to get to where I am now, so I need plenty of extra room for growth and just tossing back on what I had before. The uploader seems less glitchy than the Google Music one as well. However, I really like that you can change tags in Google Music and change artwork and such. With Amazon Cloud you can't. You can remove faulty artwork, but can't rep-lace it with anything. I really hope they address this, but I'm willing to sacrifice a few albums with no art for access to everything everywhere for $20 a year.

Oh, and if you want all music on your machine uploaded, the uploader will search and locate all MP3 files and then upload them automatically.

Yes. Amazon has an uploader that finds your music files and uploads the entire thing.

Is there a way to target a specific folder though?

ahhh i see, never mind.

purchased. will be uploading this week.

Amazon Cloud Player Now Works with iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

http://is.gd/WLnNkz

This is where i stand right now.
Go figure, in NY/NJ I am in plenty plenty plenty of places where my coverage sucks....AT&T and now Verizon. Where we are moving next month, the coverage isnt perfect....

This cloud stuff is great for my home computer and wifi, but when i am on the road, I see myself & my music constantly cutting off, buffering, etc...

For what it is worth, TK, I haven't had problems w/ coverage causing problems w/ buffering etc. But ATT's coverage is pretty decent here.

Where you at KF?

Northern New Jersey pretty much sucks overall....dead spots galore....until they build some more towers, it may not be worth it outside of simply having a better place to back up my music, and not have to rely on hard drives crashing or dvd-r's screwing up...

New Orleans. ATT has alway provided pretty good coverage here.

Yeah, and for whatever reason, the Amazon one recognized and correctly found the correct number of files--Google Music didn't want to upload a lot of stuff (I think that there were too many tracks to start with threw it off somehow.)

Just checked and it's uploaded almost 7,000 songs since I left on Saturday: Progress.

sounds like you have a pretty good connection. my work connection is great but im worried ill get a letter or something if i upload 100,000 songs over two weeks. at home it will take about 6 months.

I just switched (back) to Comcast after my local ISP was not able to deliver on the speeds they were offering. I also updated my modem (had been a while) to a DOSCIS 3.0. I'm getting consistent speeds of 23 down and 7 up--not bad and I now have the gear (including a new router) to get the really hardcore speeds they are offering at a premium price point if I decide to go that route.

For now 23 & 7 for $29.99/month for 12 months will do me just fine, thanks.

So where do we stand with the Cloud services two months later?

I think I am leaning towards this Amazon deal for $20 bux and unlimited music....i think that is perfect, as any video or documents I'd like to upload won't come close to 20 gigs, and I can put up my 500 gigs worth of music (who knows how long that will take)....I trust Amazon won't be ging out of business anytime soon, so my music will be safe for a while....And bottom line, I have Spotify should some disaster happen at the Amazon HQ...

where are people leaning?

i still think the amazon deal is the best for now, i just havent been able to upload all that i want yet, but thats a local bandwidth issue, not one with amazon. also, it organizes fairly well on the site, assuming your tags are correct

Guess I'll chime in here.

I've been using Amazon for a while. The unlimited storage is great and it works fine, although ending up in a poor reception area is a drag since I stream through my phone. I always keep a decent amount of music downloaded for poor reception on road trips and such. But, the interface is lacking, especially the inability to rename tracks or edit tags/artwork. Still, unlimited music on streaming is pretty great and I just bluetooth connect to my car and home stereos.

But yeah, the initial upload with my slow upload speed at home 2was painful. Took about a month to upload around 30,000 songs...although that includes some glitches from knocking the power cord off the laptop and that kind of thing making me restart the process a few times. I uploaded a few thing at work and with a faster upload connection it seems like it would be a much easier process.

The inability to edit tracks and titles and such, is a turn off..

guess i shouldn't get too greedy.

part of me still wants to see what the apple one is gonna be like, although i wouldnt do it cause of the cost involved....

i may just do amazon and hope they continue to improve it over time.

Frankly, I figure the Amazon one is cheap enough to give it a shot. I mean, $20 for a year is like less than $2 a month. But yeah, I do hope they eventually start letting you at least edit track and artist names. Changing art when it auto locates the wrong thing would be nice too.

I uploaded all my stuff a few months back and haven't really had any problems. I don't really access the cloud storage music much on the go since I've usually got plenty to listen to but it's a nice option if I need it.

Gapless playback would be nice. Otherwise sound quality wise seems pretty much as good as any other MP3-based method.

not for nothing, i have been on AT&T and Verizon now and coverage in Jersey sucks ass.
so until they get their crap together, i would keep my ipod....and consider maybe one of the newer 180 gig touches.

This did allow me to ditch my iPod, which I am most grateful about.