Amazon Isn’t Paying Music Labels Licensing Fees for ‘Cloud Player’

Robert Andrews, PaidContent:

But Amazon resists any suggestion that it needs licenses for storage. The company tells paidContent: “We do not need a license to store music in Cloud Drive. The functionality of saving MP3s to Cloud Drive is the same as if a customer were to save their music to an external hard drive or even iTunes.” We asked if Amazon believes the same holds true for streaming over its companion Cloud Player and was told this is its official statement and there would be no further comment at this time.

Good for Amazon. I really hope they win this. If you buy a song (or movie, or TV show), it shouldn’t matter where it’s stored.

★ Wednesday, 30 March 2011