Best Buy Music Cloud hits for desk, iOS, Android

Best Buy in an uncharacteristic step jumped into the cloud music space on Wednesday with Best Buy Music Cloud. The service lets users share their iTunes music collections either over the web or through mobile apps, including Android, BlackBerry, and iOS users. Much akin to Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music Beta, listeners have to upload music themselves, although a desktop app will automatically push new iTunes additions to the cloud space.

The service allows caching specific albums, tracks, and whole artist libraries or playlists for offline use.

Only the web side of the service is currently complete, though it will remain free to use for an unknown amount of storage. Mobile apps are coming later and will require a $4 per month subscription to work.

Music Cloud comes as part of Best Buy's increasing attempts to stay relevant amid declining physical media sales. The company had bought Napster but has stayed mostly silent on what it would do with the new resources until today. It may struggle to compete in the wake of iTunes Match; Apple's service is limited to its own mobile hardware but will cost half as much and won't require uploads for music that Apple can recognize.

By Electronista Staff

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iPod, iPhone, industry, Google, iTunes, Android, audio, BlackBerry, Best Buy, RIM, mobile phones, Apple, iPad, Amazon Cloud Player, Music Beta