Social Media Vocabulary: Cloud Music!

Not only is Katy Perry probably on cloud nine after her haul at the VMA’s on Sunday, her recent distinction as the only woman and only one of two artist’s (Michael Jackson) to ever have 5 number one singles from one album, must have her feeling pretty good.

Not only that, she has the perfect picture for our social media vocabulary topic today, cloud music. Is there anything she isn’t doing right?

*Deep breath*

Alright, now that I am focused again, let’s talk cloud music. If you love KP like I do and want her music (and lot’s of other music) with you wherever you may go, listen up, some of the big boys are changing the music streaming game and there are better options than ever for streaming your own library and even content on demand.

1. Google Music (beta): Ah, Google always giving us free stuff. With an invite to Google Music you can upload your music library (up to 20,000 tracks free) and access them on any device that supports the Google Music App. (Android devices and any computer with a browser). The interface is still under construction and it isn’t super easy to manage your music, but 20,000 songs for free isn’t too shabby.
2. Spotify: Finally in the US, Spotify offers a blend of free music and your own tracks. With an account you can upload your own songs to your cloud library and then add any songs in the Spotify database to your library as well. They have a few different plans starting at free (with an invite) and 4.95 after that for different versions of their Pro accounts. They have an excellent catalog of music available for free addition to your library thanks to deals with many major and independent labels.
3. Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon has been steady at work building a nice cloud player and have a great deal on an unlimited amount of music storage, plus 20 GB of regular Cloud Drive space. Check that out here. The Amazon Cloud Player isn’t free like Google Music but unlimited tracks uploaded for $20/year is an insanely good deal. They also have apps for a number of different platforms including iOS and the ability to automatically add song purchases from Amazon to your cloud library.
4. iCloud?: Well apparently iTunes is (or soon will) support streaming of tracks from your library to your mobile device. (If you have Apple products of course) You will also be able to download and stream content from the iTunes store and watch it anywhere you choose. They are calling it iCloud and for everyone with extensive libraries locked into iTunes, this will be a dream come true. Check out all the rumors here.
5. Others?: If none of these strike your fancy, there are ton of different services out there ranging in price and features. Here is a great list to kickstart your search. Remember all those great online streaming players too like last.fm radio, Pandora, Hype Machine, Grooveshark, and others.