Online Age - Examples of 'the cloud'

The Cloud: Music is stored in the cloud, subscribed users can listen to that music. Users can also use the cloud to store music and create and save individual playlists. People can listen to music wherever and whenever they are, from a vareity of devices, as the music is stored in remote servers.
Listening to music is now going from a device-based system, which is buying music and listening to it on your iPod, phone or mp3 player, to a more access-based approach. This is when users can access music from huge music libraries stored in the cloud.


Spotify:
This launched in 2008, it is available for free but only a limited service is available. however for a monthly subscription which costs £4.99 a month for unlimited streaming of music and no advertisements. The premium which costs £9.99 a month, allows you to use Spotify on your phone as well.


Deezer:
French based music streaming service allows users to listen to music on various devices online or offline. Currently has over 15  million licensed tracks to listen to and over 30,000 radio channels. Users can also create their own library by setting up playlists or editing them with other users. It also allows you to follow an artist or add an album or radio channel to their playlist. With Deezer you are also able to share music and see what your friends are listening to. Deezer also has the same subscription prices as Spotify.


Rara
Rara.com, which has launched in 16 countries, said its research suggested that 60% of consumers had never used a digital music service. The organisation aims to simplify the process. For a monthly subscription, users can select and listen to tracks via their standard web browser. Its main competitor is Spotify, which has more than two million paying users.


Guvera
New breed of online music download and streaming service, which allows people to stream and download for free and the artists get paid. Guvera was launched in 2008, music downloads are paid for by brands from a large music catalogue. It is run primarily from funding and this is the reason why users can download and stream for free. In 2010 Guvera was made available first to Australia and the United States, it is not yet available in any other countries as it is still fairly new and being tested. In March 2012 Guvera announced they will be releasing a mobile app soon, so users can access it from any device. Guvera has said it has plans to expand its content and include movies and TV shows for its occupants.