The Problem with Most Cloud Storage for Audio
Musicians generate a lot of data. A single 24-bit WAV session can run several gigabytes. Record regularly at home for a year and you end up with tens of gigabytes of takes, demos, and live recordings that simply cannot be recreated if a drive dies.
Consumer services like iCloud and Google One are fine for general use, but they have fixed storage tiers, relatively low caps, and no API that lets an app like 1Take automate uploads in the background. Developer-focused object storage (Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi) has full API access, but the pricing has some gotchas that really do matter for recording workflows.
B2 sits between these two worlds. Developer API, priced for how musicians actually use storage.
How B2 Pricing Works
As of March 2026, Backblaze B2 charges as follows:
- Storage: $0.006/GB per month ($6/TB). Goes up to $0.00695/GB ($6.95/TB) on May 1, 2026.
- First 10 GB: always free, no credit card required.
- Uploads: free. You never pay to send data to B2.
- Downloads: free up to 3x your average stored data per month, then $0.01/GB after that.
- API calls: Class A (uploads, creates) always free. Class B and C currently have 2,500 free per day; full free access planned from May 2026.
The number that matters most for recording backup: uploads cost $0. Every WAV file, every take, every session backup lands in B2 without touching your bill. You pay only for the storage you actually use.
Cost Comparison
These estimates assume a musician recording about 10 GB of audio per month — typical for regular WAV home recording.
| Service | Year 1 Cost (est.) | Upload Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze B2 | ~$4–5 | Free | First 10 GB free; pay only for storage above that |
| Amazon S3 | ~$18–20 | Free | Storage at $0.023/GB — roughly 4x the B2 rate |
| Wasabi | ~$84 | Free | 1 TB minimum charge ($6.99/month regardless of how little you store) |
| Google One 100 GB | $35.88 | N/A | Consumer plan; no API for automated backup |
| iCloud 50 GB | $11.88 | N/A | Limited to 50 GB; no external API access |
The Wasabi number needs some unpacking. $6.99/TB sounds competitive, but Wasabi charges you for a full terabyte even if you store 10 GB. On top of that, there is a 90-day minimum storage policy per object — delete a file after one day and you still get billed for 90. For a slowly-growing audio archive, that adds up fast.
S3 has no minimum, but $0.023/GB is nearly four times what B2 charges. A 120 GB archive at year's end costs about $2.76/month on S3 versus $0.72/month on B2.
Why the Upload Pattern Matters
Most cloud storage pricing assumes you download frequently. Recording backup does not work that way.
The pattern is: upload constantly, download almost never. Files go up after every session. They come back down when a drive fails, when you switch computers, or when you need to share stems with a remote producer. That is maybe a few times a year, if that.
B2's free download allowance is 3x your average stored data per month. With a 120 GB archive, that is 360 GB free each month. Even a full restore of everything uses only a third of that allowance. You would have to be pretty creative to actually exceed the free tier on a recording backup.
Reliability
Backblaze's stated data durability is 99.999999999% (eleven nines) — the same number Amazon quotes for S3. Different architectures, same practical result: losing a file to hardware failure is statistically negligible.
Backblaze does this through their Vault architecture: each file is spread across 20 storage pods using Reed-Solomon erasure coding. Multiple pods can fail simultaneously and every file can still be reconstructed.
By contrast, a consumer hard drive fails at roughly 1–3% per year. Store recordings only on a local drive and the odds catch up with you over a few years, even with multiple local copies. Off-site backup at eleven-nine durability takes that risk off the table, for less than the cost of a replacement drive over the same period.
A Realistic First Year
Here's what the numbers actually look like for 10 GB/month, keeping everything:
- Month 1: 10 GB stored — $0 (within the free tier)
- Month 2: 20 GB stored — $0.06/month
- Month 6: 60 GB stored — $0.30/month
- Month 12: 120 GB stored — $0.66/month
- Total for the year: roughly $4–5
All uploads are free. If you pull files down occasionally to mix on another machine, you will still be well within the free download allowance for the entire year.
After May 2026, the rate goes to $0.00695/GB, so the same scenario runs about $4.50–5.50 for year one. Still under $5.50.
How 1Take Works with Backblaze B2
I built B2 support into 1Take v1.4 as part of Cloud Sync. Setup takes three things: your B2 Application Key ID, Application Key, and a bucket name. You can also add a path prefix if you want to keep recordings in a specific folder within the bucket.
After that, everything runs automatically:
- Each recording is queued for upload the moment you stop recording.
- Uploads happen in the background over Wi-Fi (or cellular, if you enable it in Settings).
- If an upload fails due to a dropped connection or a temporary B2 outage, 1Take retries. The retry limit and interval are both configurable.
- Every upload attempt is logged, so you can see exactly what's backed up and what's still pending.
B2 integration is available to all 1Take users, including the free tier. No extra charge from my side.
Getting a B2 Account
Sign up at backblaze.com. The first 10 GB is free, no credit card needed. To connect 1Take, create an Application Key with read and write access to your bucket — takes about two minutes in the B2 dashboard.
Bottom Line
If you record regularly and want automated off-site backup that does not cost much, B2 is the best option I found among services that actually have a developer API. The free uploads fit the recording workflow naturally. The free storage tier handles light use entirely. And the durability numbers are on par with S3 at a fraction of the price.
If you're currently relying on a local drive or a consumer plan with limited capacity, setting up B2 in 1Take's Cloud Sync is probably the quickest way to actually fix that.