Amazon want you to build your own streamers

Quietly launched (on amazon.com, not yet on .co.uk, is Amazon Cloud Storage. You get five gig of free space to store stuff in.

Yes, yes, but that's not all - if you use your cloud drive to store mp3s, you can play them from there. Streaming to computers or android phones. All rather nice.

You can buy extra space, too (US customers only right now) - it's the sort of cheap deal that can rapidly become uncheap; a dollar a gig up to a thousand.

As a nice extra, if you buy mp3s from Amazon, and lob them into your cloud, they don't count against your space.

It looks at first glance like something useful; Mashable are impressed. It's not a totally new idea - there were similar, though more limited, services offered about ten years ago, but back then record labels squawking about piracy had them closed down. (Just as well - had they not had music lockers chased off the internet, their business might be looking pretty sick today, eh?)

Apple are rumoured to be about to offer something similar. If the cellular and wifi networks can cope, your music collection might never be bigger than your music player again.