document: Music Industry Will Force Licenses on Amazon Cloud Player -- or Else Amazon 's decision to launch its new Cloud Player without securing additional music licenses has been described as a `` bold move '' by many observers . It takes serious guts for Amazon to simply declare that it does n't need licenses -- especially when even casual observers know the music industry thinks otherwise . Still , this is n't a one-dimensional issue , and the law has yet to deal much with services like Amazon 's . Record companies fantasize about huge revenues from streaming services , and they fear digital lockers like the plague . ` The word streaming and the word download are nowhere in copyright law ' -- MP3tunes ' CEO Michael Robertson If the record labels do n't come to a licensing agreement with Amazon soon , they will either be forced to take legal action or implicitly allow other music companies to ditch cloud licenses too . Amazon vs. the music industry Amazon launched two new services , Cloud Drive and Cloud Player , earlier this week . U.S. Amazon customers can get free online storage from Amazon to use for whatever they please , but users are heavily encouraged to upload their local music libraries . All Amazon MP3 purchases are automatically synced to the user 's Cloud Drive without counting against the quota , too . Once the music is copied to the remote drive , users can then use the Cloud Player Android or Web app to stream the music to any compatible device or browser , even if the files themselves had not been synced there . Both Apple and Google are expected to launch very similar services in the future , but neither has made an announcement . Google 's music service is rumored to offer both music downloads and streams to go with its own digital locker -- the service would scan a user 's computer and automatically add any tracks that Google has licensed to that user 's online locker . Apple 's may involve unlimited music redownloads and streams to iOS devices as part of a MobileMe revamp , and Apple is currently believed to be in talks with the Big Four music labels -- Sony Music , Universal Music Group -LRB- UMG -RRB- , Warner Music Group -LRB- WMG -RRB- and EMI -- to make it happen . If Apple and Google are dutifully trying to hammer out licensing deals , why did Amazon go ahead and launch Cloud Player without them ? Amazon argues that Cloud Drive and Cloud Player are just services that let users upload and play back their own music , just like `` any number of existing media management applications . '' After all , licenses should n't be necessary for users to play their own music , right ? The labels seem to disagree -- they expressed shock following Amazon 's announcement , with a Sony Music representative implying that the company was looking into legal options . But are licenses required for users to play back music that they have legally purchased , even if that playback is coming from `` the cloud ? '' Continue reading ...
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