Amazon Drive

 

I received an email last week that Amazon Drive was shutting down at the end of the year. Drive is a cloud-based storage site, similar to Microsoft's One Drive or Drop Box. I haven't used the service in years, but the email got me curious as to what might be on my account. I decided to check it out. I wasn't surprised by what I found, but the dates are intriguing.

I remember using Drive to store music, and that is exactly what I found on my account. I didn't have anything besides music stored on my drive. There were numerous MP3 files, mostly accessed in 2012, but some of the files had been accessed as recently as 2014. I was doing some sort of archival project, as it looked like I was using the site as a back-up source for my MP3 files and was in the middle of a project. I remember having interest in having access to my MP3 files on the web, so that I could listen to them without being next to my computer. At one point I even had my PS3 working as an access point to my network so that I could listen to my MP3 files through the TV and stereo system connected to the TV.

What I find so interesting about this is I was doing all of this just 10 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I still have my MP3 files, but probably haven't listened to an MP3 in 5 years or longer. With the invention of streaming music services like Spotify or Amazon Music, there just really isn't a need. Those services also solved the problem of being tethered to your computer to listen to the music, as their apps work on just about any device with an internet connection. Looking at my Amazon Drive page today was like opening a time capsule. It's amazing how far we've come in 10 years in music availability.