NAS vs Cloud?

Hello,
I currently run a NAS with 2 8TB hard drives and listen to my music via the “server” input.
A friend is telling me its time to switch to cloud storage…
If i made the switch to cloud is it even possible to access and pmay my music via the focal/naim app?
Thanks
Ed

Not via native app.

There are other non naim apps which can cast music from cloud storage (Google say) to your devices.

Why not get best of both? Our NAS backs up all music to Google cloud. So we use NAS when at home and cloud when out and about or on holiday.

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Before you go ahead, make sure what you’re getting into. I have 10,000 tracks uploaded (for free) to YouTube Music f/k/a Google Music. I uploaded substantially all of them as FLAC, CD Quality, and in a few instances hi-res. But to my knowledge, YouTube converts them to mp3 256. Moreover, I believe it will use a track already in it’s library which may be different from the version on my server.

My goal was to have a reasonable subset of my library available when I travel or as a worst case scenario back-up. But I never use it with my main system.

I believe Apple does something similar (or used to). I don’t know about Amazon.

Local storage is cheaper than the cloud, doesn’t rely on subscription to keep, and if you do backups effectively is at least as reliable…

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To be clear, I also keep two complete backups. And I still have all my CDs.

For the heck of it, I also have my library available on a 512 GB mini-card at 256 kbps.

I keep my music on a NAS and back it up to the cloud. I wouldn’t be happy not having a local copy.

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I would always want the reliability of local storage and several back ups. All under my control, not dependent on internet or Cloud providers or Cloud storage subscriptions either.

Bruce

I have all my files/music/pictures and videos on a large USB SSD, 2 NAS’s (RAID) in my house and one NAS at a third location. They also back up to a cloud service called backblaze which offers unlimited capacity (although not for a NAS - so thats why I use the USB SSD).

Probably over-doing it a bit, but I have heard too many horror stories about corrupt disks, stolen computers - lost everything.

For the amount of TB I have (5), google/apple and others are too expensive… As per Jegreenwood, I also have a copy of music on an sd card as MP3 for my car. I got rid of my 500+ cds in cases a long time ago - just kept the CDs and binned the cases - much less space. A few were worth 5-10 Euros, so I kept them with the cases…

I have my music on an SSD i the Mac Mini that is also my renderer, a copy on hard disk in a NAS in another room (soon to be changed to SSD), together with lots of other thing, e.g. photos and personal files. Whenever I download or rip new music I add to both. I have a periodic backup of the NAS (whenever I think things could do with backing up - usually after editing a bunch of photos) on a USB drive normally sitting in a cupboard in another room, and an annually taken backup on a hard drive in a damp-tight plastic box in the shed. The worst case scenario with, say, a major fire would be loss of music downloaded or ripped in the past year, which rarely is more than a handful or two of albums. I don’t see any benefit whatsoever of cloud storage. When I compare to when I had only physical media, records and CDs, there was then no back-up in event of fire, though theft I hoped was likely to be limited due to bulk.

Sounds good - I would think twice about changing from HDD to SSD. I have 4 x 8TB and 6 x 2TB and always have a spare disk on hand if one fails (one did recently). From what I have read, SSD doesnt give a lot more benefit vs HDD in terms of speed, and the cost per GB is way higher… I use Netgear ReadyNas in XRaid (ie one disk is redundant - so can be replaced in case of failure without loss of data). I did upgrade the ram on my NAS’s and have two gigabit cables to each.

I also have a few family macbooks that backup to TimeMachine. This is amazing. If you have a problem with the computer - it restores an exact copy within a few hours. This has saved my a@@ a few times.

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I have just under 4TB on my NAS and have multiple USB drive backups stashed in different locations. I would love to have a dropbox cloud backup but 4TB wasn’t economical last time I looked. It would be nice to have the added security of a cloud back up.

EIMarko

Check out backblaze (no I dont get a commission) - its about 70$ a year for unlimited data - but as I mentioned, only backs up from USB drives connected to your main laptop/pc. Thats why I have a 5TB USB SSD connected to my laptop - so its all backed up all the time to the cloud.

Thanks for the recommendation. That’s pretty economical. I wonder if it can backup from the USB drive connected to my NAS? I’ll give them a look.

Afraid not from NAS USB - I tried. It needs an account on PC or Mac with USB drive attached to that. Bonus is that it backs up your pc/mac/laptop data as well (I have 4 licenses for the family)

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When you say it backs up to the the Google cloud, are you referring to YouTube Music f/k/a Google Music (so you can play music directly from your cloud library using the YouTube Music app)? Or just simple cloud storage space?

Cloud storage space. Not messed with. Basic file storage.

There are many audio apps for Apple and Android which can play/cast music from cloud storage. Unfortunately the naim app doesn’t offer this.

Google cloud backup is built into our NAS (other cloud storage providers are also supported). Enter username/password, pick directories and schedule and it is self managing.

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