Recently the tech world has been absolutely buzzing about “cloud†systems and music. Amazon has charged ahead with theirs, claiming that they need no license from the record labels, and Google is reportedly, furtively, working on their own system as well. If so, this could be the latest power move from the tech scene which could make for yet more waves within the already turbulent music industry. But given that Black music has consistently been so coveted (helped by tech advances in ringtones to downloads) just how could this development affect the young artists behind the creativity and who constitute a chunk of our Black GDP?
But first, exactly what is a “cloud,†and how could it enable you, the average music fan, to access tracks from Nicki Minaj to Trey Songz? Essentially cloud computing means being able to access data resources on-demand via a shared pool of computer networks with little management effort or service provider interaction. You can easily access the information from, for example, a Web browser while the software or data is actually stored on servers elsewhere. The beauty of the tech model is that it provides one single point of access for computing needs. Think of it similarly to how you access electricity directly to your home from a complex grid system and doing so without any knowledge required of how the grid system works. You simply can tap into that electricity at any time into any room from the single point access of your home.
Now, visualize that same ability when it comes to obtaining to your music.