When MP3 players first debuted, you could only carry as many songs as you could fit in its internal storage. Today that’s no longer the case, with services that will host your music for you — freeing up internal device storage for photos, videos or apps. Check out our suggestions for ways to store all your music in the cloud.
Android
Google offers free online storage with Google Music so you can upload up to 20,000 songs and stream them to your Android Smartphone anywhere with Wi-Fi or cellular coverage. Download the app here.
iPhone
Via Apple’s iCloud you can upload up to 5GB of music (or photos, videos, and books) for free. More storage can be added for a fee of around $100 for an additional 50GB per year.
If your music was originally purchased from iTunes, Apple won’t count it towards your free 5GB storage cap, nor will it require you to upload the song at all. This free service is called iTunes Match, and for an additional $24.99 you can “match” and stream music that wasn’t purchased via iTunes, as long as it’s offered in their 20+ million song catalogue.
If you’re a fan of Google Music, you can access it on your iPhone using the Webapp.
Windows Phone
Microsoft’s online storage offering is called SkyDrive, which gives users 7GB for free and up to an additional 100GB for $50 per year. For now, you can download the app on Windows Phone as well as iOS, with the promise of an Android app coming shortly.
