Amazon to End mp3 Storage

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Does anyone out there still have a massive digital music library? I do, filled with ripped CDs and live recordings. I used to host it on Amazon for $25/year, but Amazon is ending its music storage service even for paid subscribers.

Paid users, who paid $25 annually to store up to 250,000 files, can also play and download any of that music until their subscription expires. Those who let their subscription expire won't have the option to renew it, and all songs over 250 will be removed. Those remaining 250 songs will be available for one year after the subscription expires before they're removed as well.
Link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/amazon-music-ends-mp3-upload-support-will-end-music-storage-service-in-2019/
 

Rancho Relaxo

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Selfishly, I'm glad AutoRip content isn't affected, but this sucks. I'm sorry. One of the comments pointed out that Amazon music storage had been a convenient way to access MP3s from their Echo. Is there a good alternative for cloud-based music storage? One easily accessibly from phones and smart home devices?

Yes, I still buy CDs and occasionally vinyl.
 

SuperManny

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Selfishly, I'm glad AutoRip content isn't affected, but this sucks. I'm sorry. One of the comments pointed out that Amazon music storage had been a convenient way to access MP3s from their Echo. Is there a good alternative for cloud-based music storage? One easily accessibly from phones and smart home devices?

Yes, I still buy CDs and occasionally vinyl.
I use google play music but its more of a backup/accessible in the cloud service than a storage since it scans your local library and makes it accessible to your devices online. You would still need to store it locally I believe. On the plus side it is free for a fairly large library.
 

Spelunker

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I use google play music but its more of a backup/accessible in the cloud service than a storage since it scans your local library and makes it accessible to your devices online. You would still need to store it locally I believe. On the plus side it is free for a fairly large library.
You only need to have it available locally once. I uploaded mine years ago, and lord even knows where those files are now (likely long gone). But I've been using GPM through the web and various phones for years now.
 

SuperManny

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You only need to have it available locally once. I uploaded mine years ago, and lord even knows where those files are now (likely long gone). But I've been using GPM through the web and various phones for years now.
That's good to know, I wasn't sure how that worked if you accidentally deleted one online.
 

Reardon's Beard

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Dec 3, 2005
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Google Music is great. I uploaded about 200,000 tracks years ago, free, all accessible from wherever.

Not sure if still an option but overall experience has been nothing short of amazing.
 

AlNipper49

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Why don’t you guys just use Spotify or whatever? This is like the discussion of what people would do with all of their tapes when CDs became the standard.

Seriously, it’s just a model that is quickly disappearing into obscurity.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Why don’t you guys just use Spotify or whatever? This is like the discussion of what people would do with all of their tapes when CDs became the standard.

Seriously, it’s just a model that is quickly disappearing into obscurity.
I do use Spotify. 75% of my music listening comes from it. But I'm a music hipster, and I want to play stuff from my own library. I can't tell the difference between the Beatles album there and the one I ripped using Exact Audio Copy so I'm not _that_ much of a hipster, but there are recordings I love that it doesn't have. I'd like to be able to have easy, redundant backups of those. Amazon Cloud Player made that easy.

Google Play Music does seem like the winner, but I think you're right Nip. It's a dying model, so Google might turn this off someday, too. To @Rancho Relaxo's point, I have an Echo Dot and literally the only things I use it for are to play music from Amazon and as a kitchen timer. It looks like I might have to switch from Echo hardware to Chromecast Audio if I want to play Google Music on my speakers. I'll lose voice control, but so it goes.
 

jercra

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I do use Spotify. 75% of my music listening comes from it. But I'm a music hipster, and I want to play stuff from my own library. I can't tell the difference between the Beatles album there and the one I ripped using Exact Audio Copy so I'm not _that_ much of a hipster, but there are recordings I love that it doesn't have. I'd like to be able to have easy, redundant backups of those. Amazon Cloud Player made that easy.

Google Play Music does seem like the winner, but I think you're right Nip. It's a dying model, so Google might turn this off someday, too. To @Rancho Relaxo's point, I have an Echo Dot and literally the only things I use it for are to play music from Amazon and as a kitchen timer. It looks like I might have to switch from Echo hardware to Chromecast Audio if I want to play Google Music on my speakers. I'll lose voice control, but so it goes.
If you pair your phone to your Echo and use Google Play Music over bluetooth you'll retain some voice control (pause, play, skip, go back) but lose search and play ability. You could always get a Google Home and have basically the same functionality, but mine drives me nuts compared to my Echo, especially for music.
 

AlNipper49

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I do use Spotify. 75% of my music listening comes from it. But I'm a music hipster, and I want to play stuff from my own library. I can't tell the difference between the Beatles album there and the one I ripped using Exact Audio Copy so I'm not _that_ much of a hipster, but there are recordings I love that it doesn't have. I'd like to be able to have easy, redundant backups of those. Amazon Cloud Player made that easy.

Google Play Music does seem like the winner, but I think you're right Nip. It's a dying model, so Google might turn this off someday, too. To @Rancho Relaxo's point, I have an Echo Dot and literally the only things I use it for are to play music from Amazon and as a kitchen timer. It looks like I might have to switch from Echo hardware to Chromecast Audio if I want to play Google Music on my speakers. I'll lose voice control, but so it goes.
I think Google will absolutely turn it off eventually. I was/am like you but finally gave up. Part of mine was also being stubborn...ripping all my music took a LONG time.

Have you considered something like Plex? Self-hosting could solve the problem for you permanently.

I must say, though, that what I lose in Spotify I’ve gained more I think. I’ve definitely been listening to a much wider variety of music since I have an infinite amount of choices easily in front of me.
 

Gagliano

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So which cloud storage would you guys recommend for Plex? I just made an attempt with OneDrive because I got a free 1 TB drive with Office365, but that was a flaming disaster due to the speed.
 

jercra

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Why would you do cloud storage for Plex? Just use local storage on your Plex server with cloud as a backup.
 

Gagliano

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I wanted to use my echo with it, and my echo can go anywhere I go.
 

jercra

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Ok, what does that have to do with cloud storage of music? Plex interacts with Alexa via a skill. The music still lives on the same device as your Plex server. It will still traverse the internet to get to your Alexa, no matter where you are, but it does not need to live in the cloud.
 

Gagliano

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Gotcha, thanks. I'm not an expert on this by any means. I just assumed it would be easier to have it stored on the cloud rather than having my own hardware running 24/7.
 

jercra

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Sure, but that's the nature of Plex. It's software that you download onto your own server that's always running. I just made the assumption that you knew that so I apologize. If you don't have that available, then things start to get interesting.
 

Gagliano

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Ok, I set up a PC as a Plex server, and enabled remote access successfully. My Echo connects to it and even finds things on my server. I tell it to play music, and it tells me what it finds. I say "Barbara Thompson" and it says "Playing Barbara Thompson Paraphernalia", but doesn't start playing anything. Is it actually supposed to be able to stream music from Plex?
 

Gagliano

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I've done that. It even replies with "playing music by....." but it doesn't actually play anything. I googled it, and apparently this is a problem elsewhere as well. But I didn't find any solutions.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Bump. Got an email from Amazon saying they were going to delete my music in 30 days unless I clicked "save a copy of my library." 30 days from now I won't be able to add anymore files to my Amazon cloud library but I should still be able to retain access to those I've uploaded. Not bad. If you're a current subscriber to Amazon Music Storage, check your email.