As the online/cloud music player market continues to emerge, retailer Best Buy has launched their own cloud music player, in lite and premium (read: $3.99 a month) flavors. No word yet on what the difference is, but we’ll keep you posted.
The main kicker here is that unlike the competition, Best Buy doesn’t lock you into a specific Mobile OS. For iTunes in the Cloud you need iOS, for Sony and Google you need Android, and unless I’m mistaken, Amazon Music can technically play in iOS by using the browser, but the only official dedicated client is for Android. I’d be shocked if HP’s rumored upcoming HP Play isn’t exclusive to WebOS.
Best Buy, however, has players for Blackberry, Android and iOS. This is a nice feature, and we look forward to comparing how each client differs.
On the desktop end things are sadly not as interoperable, as iTunes is required for song uploading. This is a rather annoying feature. Not everyone wants to use Apple’s music jukebox. Without folder uploads, you lock that segment out, as well as Linux users (both of them).
It would be really cool to see Best Buy leverage their outsider position to partner with a third party, like DoubleTwist, and make the first solid, major-label, platform-agnostic cloud music player.
It might be a temporary fix for iOS, but man does it not match up to the current offerings on Android. About to post an article about it, but I downloaded to compare it to other cloud streaming music apps… only works with iTunes? Screw that.