gdgt

Now that Google Music, iCloud, and Amazon Cloud Player have all been announced it looks like on-demand cloud music services basically falling into two camps: music lockers, like those from Apple, Amazon, and Google, which basically let you upload your music collection to a server (or that's automatically put there via purchase or matched against your current collection) and then stream it via browser or mobile app; and streaming services like Rhapsody, Spotify, Rdio, MOG, etc which charge a monthly fee for unlimited on-demand access to a huge catalog of music.

Each has a very different vision of how you should think about your music collection, with the lockers essentially acting like an online backup of that hard drive full of MP3s you have on your computer, while the streaming services dispense with the whole notion of owning files altogether and just offer you access to anything in their collection, no files to manage or syncing to deal with.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on what you're comfortable paying, how big your music collection is, which devices you use to listen to music, but so far I haven't been totally happy either music lockers or streaming services. I love the convenience of streaming -- I have a Rhapsody subscription that I use primarily with the Sonos system in my apartment (if you haven't used Sonos with a streaming service like Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, or Spotify you should -- it's awesome), but because I listen to so much music that isn't available in their catalog I tend to just use my phone or an MP3 player when I'm listening to music outside of the house.

What I want is someone to figure out how to combine the two. I want the convenience and breadth of a streaming service, but I want the ability to augment their selection and upload to the cloud all the more obscure stuff I like (about a third of my collection, I'd guess) which doesn't appear in anyone's catalog and access all of it via the same app.

There is definitely a gap here that I'd love to see closed. Streaming services a great if they have everything you want, but for things they don't have -- and none of them have the Beatles, for example -- you still need to own a digital copy. Music lockers obviously give you access to everything you own, but syncing and managing a collection is a hassle, and streaming services are simply more convenient.

I'm sure a combination of licensing requirements and major label intransigence would make something like what I'm describing unlikely to happen to anytime soon, but there isn't any technological obstacle to it being built. All it would entail is a streaming service provider like Rhapsody or Spotify or whoever doing the same thing they do now, but just adding the ability to upload some music to their servers and stream it alongside music they already offer. That storage would cost extra, but for someone like me it'd be worth it. The question is, are there that many people like me? I suspect that the reality is that there probably aren't that many people who want to and are willing to pay for it, but it seems like a question worth asking.

So which do you prefer?