Amazon’s Cloud Drive, announced on Tuesday, allows customers to store about 1,000 songs on the company’s Web servers for free instead of their own hard drives and play them over an Internet connection directly from Web browsers and on phones running Google Inc’s Android software.
Sony Music, home to artists such as Shakira and Kings of Leon, was upset by Amazon’s decision to launch the service without new licenses for music streaming, said spokeswoman Liz Young. “We hope that they’ll reach a new license deal,” Young said, “but we’re keeping all of our legal options open.”
Amazon beat rivals Google and Apple Inc into the market for such “music locker” services, which are meant to appeal to consumers frustrated by the complexities of storing their favorite songs at work, home and on their smartphones. Apple and Google were expected to launch their services at the end of last year. Shares of Amazon rose 3.1 percent to close at $174.62 on Nasdaq.