Amazon MP3 sales have increased since the introduction of its cloud-based music locker, the company said in a recent emailed letter to music labels, according to Billboard.
Amazon did not provide specific details about the boost in MP3 sales, but did reiterate that it does not believe its service requires licenses from music labels.
"There has also been speculation that we are looking for licenses for Cloud Drive and Cloud Player," according to an email provided to Billboard. "We are not looking for licenses for Cloud Drive or Cloud Player as they exist today—as no licensees are required."
Late last month, Amazon unveiled its Amazon Cloud service, which provides users with up to 5GB of free, online music storage. Users can then access their files on the PC or via Android-based devices. Anyone who buys an Amazon MP3 album, however, gets boosted to 20GB of free storage for a year; Amazon MP3s do not count against a user's storage limit. Amazon Cloud Drive, meanwhile, provides storage for other types of files, and yearly fees kick in beyond 20GB.
After the announcement, there were rumblings that music labels were irked that Amazon did not secure licenses to stream their content. Amazon, however, said it was merely providing a storage service for people to access music they already owned and, therefore, did not require licenses.
"Cloud Player is a media management and play-back application not unlike Windows Media Player and any number of other media management applications that let customers manage and play their music," Amazon said in the letter to labels. "It requires a license from content owners no more than those applications do. It really is that simple."
Amazon did acknowledge, however, that "potential enhancements" to the service might require licenses down the line. "Expect to hear more from us on potential licensing in the near future," Amazon concluded, according to Billboard.
For more, see PCMag's reviews of Amazon Cloud Player, Amazon Cloud Player for Android, Amazon Cloud Drive, and the slideshow below.