Apple’s announced pricing for its iCloud storage service – if you want more than the free 5GB storage, you’ll have to pay £14 a year for an extra 10GB, £28 for 20GB, and £70 for 50GB. (These are translated from US prices.) And it’s worth remembering the free 5GB doesn’t include music and photos.
But how does that stack up against what’s already available? We’ll be taking a look at eight competitors after the jump.
It’s US only at the moment, but Amazon’s offering lets you store 5GB for free (just like iCloud), 20GB for £12 a year, 50GB for £30, 100GB for £60, 200GB for £121, 500GB for £304, or 1000GB will cost you £609 a year. So, much cheaper than iCloud, though there are fewer storage options near the lower end. And let’s not forget, music files don’t eat into your allowance, for the time being anyway.
It’s still in Beta, and still US only, but for the meantime you can upload 20,000 tracks completely for free. But there is this little stipulation when you accept the offer: “Music Beta is free for a limited time. Music Beta is only for legally acquired music.” That suggests to us some kind of monthly fee will be coming soon.
The Premium offer is £9.99 a month, with unlimited music without ads, and offline listening to boot, so you can listen on the tube without needing an internet connection. Unlimited, meanwhile, is £4.99 a month, again with unlimited streaming and no ads. The best streaming option to date.
Again, more of a streaming service than a way of accessing your music library from anywhere, but with over 15 million tracks to choose from, the formerly illegal service is sure to have plenty to keep you entertained. £5 a month (or £50 a year) gives you full streaming, then £10 a month (or £100 a year) adds the ability to listen offline on your mobile.
Basic use is free to all users in the UK, US and Germany, so good news for us Brits. For ad-free listening, you can subscribe for £3 a month, or you can choose to make a one-off payment for one, three, six, or 12 months.
The Premium offering gives you unlimited streaming of four million songs for £4.99 a month, including personal radio, playlists and sharing. Upgrade to the Premium Plus option, and you get offline listening on your phone for £9.99 a month, the same as Spotify.
Only currently in Canada and Ireland, Psonar lets you stream songs for just a penny a go. You can send tracks to other people for a penny a track, too. It’s an interesting idea, but we’ll have to wait till it launches here next year to see if it can compete with all you can eat packages.
Completely free, and cornered the market in music videos. Just type in an artist, and you’re confronted with a mix right there and then, including live performances, B-sides, and more. It does require you to be online all the time, though.
