Google Music vs Amazon Cloud Drive [UPDATED]

UPDATE 6/6/11 @ 11:30am EDT - Google Music is limited to 20,000 songs.

I received my Google Music invitation this morning and immediately signed up. Google Music is a cloud based music service. Once you upload your music files they are accessible from any internet connected computer. There is also a Android app for smartphones and tablets. Amazon also has a cloud music service called Cloud Player. The files are kept in the Cloud Drive. It also has an Android app. I signed up for it when it first became available a couple of months ago. Although the overall concept is awesome - the ability to access your music 24/7 from any web-enabled device without having to access a hard drive and making the storage of music on your iPod or smartphone obsolete - the two services are a bit different.

Amazon Cloud Drive allows for storing all types of files. You get 5GB of free storage, and if you buy an album from the Amazon digital music store, you get an upgrade to 20GB free for one year from date of purchase. You can purchase additional storage at $1 a GB up to 1k. The cloud drive is separate from the cloud player. However, they are linked-your music files stored in your cloud drive are accessible in the cloud player. Amazon wants you to purchase from their digital music store and the incentive is music purchased from it doesn't count against your storage space, which is nice. The cloud player allows for all digital music store purchases to automatically be saved to your cloud drive so you can listen immediately after purchase. One disadvantage is that new music not purchased from the mp3 store is not automatically added to the cloud drive. You have to upload it manually. In order to upload music to the cloud, the free "Amazon MP3 Uploader" app has to be installed on your computer. The cloud drive and player are free. All you need is an Amazon account.

Google Music is currently in beta and invite only, but should be available to all Google users in a few months. It's very similar to the Amazon service but with three key differences. First, Google has free but limited storage of music files. The limit is 20,000 songs. Although there is a limit, it is substantial. I doubt there are many people with a digital music collection containing greater than 20k songs. Second, Google doesn't have a digital music store. Third, Google's service is platform independent and allows for automatic upload of music files from Windows Media Player or iTunes, so whenever you buy new music, it's automatically added to Google Music. It's part of the Google suite of cloud apps so if you have a Google account, you're good to go.

The Winner: Google Music by a narrow margin.

P.S. Apple has a cloud based music service coming out on June 6 called iCloud.

Related articles

• Google Music vs. Amazon Cloud Drive (readwriteweb.com)
• [Deathmatch] Google Music Beta Vs. Amazon Cloud Player (androidpolice.com)

AC/DC Concert at the Verizon Center in Washington DC on Friday, Oct 16, 2009

AC/DC Concert
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I finally got to see one of my favorite bands, AC/DC. We got a babysitter and made it a date night. The concert rocked. It was a raucous show. The band has a lot of energy. It was loud and crazy. They played around two hours. The set list included their hits and three songs off their new album, Black Ice.
Here's all the pics.

Rock on! \m/

Black Rock Coalition

I've had an affinity for black rock ever since I saw the "Cult of Personality" video on MTV. I was riveted. I found it fascinating that four black dudes could rock as hard as any white band. To me, a black rock band was groundbreaking. Before Living Colour, I thought black guys just rapped and sang R&B. That day I began a quest - to seek out all the black rock bands. I became fans of Living Colour, Lenny Kravitz, Fishbone and DC's own Bad Brains. I grew up in Atlanta which had their very own black rock band, Follow For Now. They put out one eponymously named album. I went to a ton of their concerts.

Living Colour were the groundbreakers - they co-founded the Black Rock Coalition. Check out the BRC's website for a list of bands, concerts, compilations and music. Rock bands with black members are more common these days thanks to the early trailblazers. Spin magazine recently published an article Black Rock: An Oral History. It's the history as told by those who lived it. If I've intrigued you, read the article then listen to some black rock.

20 Album Covers Recreated in LEGO

Article here. A good mix of modern and classic rock. A little overloaded with Beatles albums though. I would have liked to have seen a bigger variety of artists. Nonetheless, another great use of LEGO. The pic is Pink Floyd's "The Division Bell".

At Least It's an Ethos

It's been over a month since I last blogged, so lets catch you up on me. I just celebrated my 33rd birthday. I got Mario Kart Wii and a book "I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski - Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You." A must read for fans of the movie The Big Lebowski. If you've never seen the movie please watch it at least three times. Find out what the legion of "Achievers" already know and love. Then check out LebowskiFest. Chronic and I will be in attendance for 7th Annual Fest. If you've never heard of the movie you're a fucking amateur. Go scold yourself and get a life. Mario Kart Wii is a fun game. It incorporates the Wii style of game play into the classic game. Sixteen new tracks and 16 classic tracks. It comes with the Wii wheel, a steering wheel controller. You can now choose between karts and bikes, the first time motorcycles have been a part of the Mario Kart series. Thanks to Chronic for the great gifts.

Planning for the next World Beard and Mustache Championship (WBMC) is underway. It is being held in Anchorage, Alaska on May 23, 2009. Beard Team USA (BTUSA) wants to make a strong showing at WBMC. BTUSA wants to overtake the Germans as the most dominate beard team in the world. I'd like to compete in WBMC but it's too early to tell where my life is going to be next summer.

My upper level Redskins season ticket pair were upgraded. The seats moved from the row 2nd from the top down to row 15, one section over. That puts me farther away from the 50 yard line, but closer to the field. It's worth it, especially in the upper level. The view of the field is basically the same from either section.

My dream of becoming a helicopter pilot is now one step closer to reality. Check this out: http://www.acecraftusa.com/index.html. With the GEN H-4 I'll be flying in no time. It's the world's smallest co-axial helicopter ever made! (that actually flies). It is an ultralight one-man helicopter. It's small enough to keep in my garage. My commute would become a lot more interesting.

Rock stars ask for some stupid crap. Wedgie threats and fat roadies highlight this hilarious Foo Fighters rider: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0513081foo1.html. I love the Foos. A laid back band with a great sense of humor that really rock. Speaking of rock, we saw The Black Keys at the 9:30 club. Heavy Sole.

One last thing. High gas prices have people dusting off there bikes or buying new ones. Will we see a sea change in personal transportation? I hope so.

Off The Charts

I read this article about this dude that has 3 million records. Obsessed much? The owner of the collection calls it "The World's Greatest Music Collection". It's bigger than the one at the Library of Congress. Possibly the largest private collection in the world. Part of what makes the vault so valuable is that the owner never sold the last copy of a record, so it is filled with rarities. One of the things that separates the dude from most collectors/retailers is his meticulous archiving. In 1983, he published a two-volume Music Master discography that became a reference book for the industry and drew the praise of Dick Clark. Now, he has nearly 1 million records archived on an electronic database. Got to love OCD. The owner estimates the value of the collection at $50 million and said that CD Now nearly bought it for $28.5 million earlier in the decade, just before stock in the online Web site plummeted. He added that over the years, the Library of Congress and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum have both expressed interest in the collection. But with the retail record industry dying fast and people downloading more music than buying CDs, he went 21st century and turned to eBay. Selling the collection as a single unit for 3 million in the auction. A buyer from Ireland had agreed to buy the collection but eBay later discovered the bid was a fraud. Do you think he'll take $5000? I can write him a check right now. I'll just have to find a place to keep the records. I've got a guest room that doesn't get much action...