March 28, 2011 at 10:21 AM ET
Wouldn't it be convenient if you could keep your digital media — music, movies, e-books, and all — in one spot and access it from anywhere at anytime? With a digital locker service, you would be able to do just that.
CNET reports that its sources have shared details which indicate that e-commerce giant Amazon is working on such a digital locker service:
Sources from both the film and music industries said Amazon is working on creating a cloud locker service that would enable users to store their existing music, film, and book collections, even content not purchased at Amazon, on the company's servers.
The online merchant has yet to obtain all the necessary licenses, but Amazon managers told counterparts at the studios and labels that it could announce the service before all the negotiations are complete, the sources said.
It wouldn't be surprising at all if this report turned out to be correct. After all, Amazon is quite familiar with cloud-based or streaming-based services — Kindle owners are able to download e-books to all their devices from Amazon's servers and Amazon's Instant Video allows customers to access movies at anytime — and this would be an almost natural next step for the company.
Combine those details with the rumors that Google and Apple are also working on digital locker services and you've got potential for some hot competition.
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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.