Billboard magazine has gotten its hands on a letter from Amazon.com to the major music labels that illustrates the philosophical divide over the Seattle company’s Cloud Drive music locker and Cloud Player application.

Since its debut two weeks ago, the Cloud Drive service has been the target of questions from the music industry over the fact that Amazon didn’t secure licenses for the music that users are storing.

In the letter, Amazon says Cloud Drive has boosted sales of MP3s through Amazon’s service — apparently implying that it’s good for the music industry — and contends that the labels are misunderstanding the technology.

“We are not looking for licenses for Cloud Drive or Cloud Player as they exist today — as no licensees are required,” the letter says, according to the Billboard article.

The letter calls the Cloud Player “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. It requires a license from content owners no more than those applications do. It really is that simple.”

However, the Billboard article says Amazon’s letter signals the potential for future features that might actually require a license, and concludes by saying the labels can “expect to hear more from us on potential licensing in the near future.”

Should be interesting to see what kind of reaction that gets. We’ve asked Amazon for a copy of the full letter, and we’ll update this post if we get it.

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