Google Music vs. Amazon Cloud Storage

Recently, Google and Amazon (And Apple soon) have released their cloud music services, and much to my surprise, I am loving them both. Google’s service required an invite directly from Google, but Amazon’s rolled out to every user at one time. Kind of a different approach, but when you think about it, that is just what they do. Google does the beta, and Amazon opens up to the masses.

I would hate to have to pick a winner right now, because both services have many pro’s and con’s that make each one individual and different. So, below I have listed each one for both services. If I don’t cover something that you think is important, please e-mail/post or comment about what is missing, and I will try to address it.

Google Music
Pros
Thumbs up/Thumbs down - you can label music with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Small feature, but it helps organize music that I like that is not in a playlist.
Editing of Album/Song Meta Data - this is especially useful because I often have an odd spelling of a particular artist and that creates two albums when in fact, it’s only one. I can now correct that.
Nice/Slick Interface - the interface is really streamlined and easy to use. It’s also very simple and user friendly.
Lists Number of Plays - I can see how many times a particular song has been played.
Number of Songs Able to Upload - allows for up to 20,000 songs to be uploaded. This could last only until the beta ends, though.
Instant Playlists - right click on a song, and click on create playlist, and you have a 20 song playlist of similar songs.
Cons
Takes a While to Load Sometimes - sometimes the song I would like play takes a few seconds to load. Mildly annoying, but still there.
Can’t Re-download to Computer - Amazon’s Cloud Service can re-download any song to any device. Google’s service will only allow you to download to a device (tablet/phone) and those are not even files you can download off your device.
Not all Album Art is Present - I like to see the album art for the songs that I own. Several instances of songs I bought from Amazon don’t show up on Google’ Service.
Need to Manually Upload to Google Music - when I purchase a song from Amazon, I have to manually download it to my computer and then re-upload it to Google Music (but that does happen automatically, so there is little actual work to be done).
Can’t Choose Particular Music Not to Upload - I have audio tracks that I don’t want uploaded, You pick a directory and Google will auto-upload them the first time.

Amazon Cloud Storage
Pros
Can Re-download to Any Computer/Device - I can re-download any file that I have uploaded to any computer, phone or tab as many times as I would like.
Music Bought from Amazon Is Stored for Free - if I buy a song from Amazon.com, they store the music for free as long as I have an account. Also, that music is added to my collection and there is no need to download and then upload music. It’s just there.
HTTPS: - plays over a HTTPS connection. Not sure why this is good, but I’m sure it is for one reason or another.
5 GB Free Space to Put Songs - having a basic Amazon.com account gets you 5GB free space. Additional storage costs extra.
Cons
Clunky Interface - the interface is very clunky and not as streamlined as the Google Music browser. Looks old.
No Instant Playlist - a nice feature that should be standard.
No Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down - could be very helpful if you want to play just thumbs-up music. Google has a default playlist of just music that you gave the thumbs-up to.
Doesn’t List Number of Plays - I like this feature, and am very surprised that Amazon hasn’t included it yet. I also noticed when the Zune player didn’t have it. Should be a standard feature.

I have to say, though, that the Google Music Beta is just a cleaner more interesting interface, and while Amazon seems to have the upper hand in purchasing and storing the music, Google has the edge on base features and clean looking interface. I am left wondering if Amazon left out some of those basic features because they were afraid of a patent lawsuit. But the good news is that neither of them are finished and each service can improve. Yay for choice!