Best Buy Launches Cloud Music Service Too

Best Buy's new cloud music service, in its current state, doesn't even compare to the robust helpings dished out by mSpot, Google, Amazon and Apple.

Electronics retailer Best Buy has launched its own cloud-based music service similar to services provided by mSpot, Google, Amazon and Apple. But unlike its competitors, Best Buy is taking a different route by granting 30-second access to music stored in the cloud when streamed to a mobile device via its free My Music Anywhere Lite plan. By contrast, Google and Amazon have no such limitations.

According to Best Buy, the My Music Anywhere Pro setup, costing $3.99 per month and up, grants full access to all the music stored in the cloud from a BlackBerry, Android and iOS device. The plan also includes "thousands" of web-based radio stations, automatic syncing with your music library, and the ability to listen to the cloud-stored files on any connected computer. Mspot offers a similar plan for free – additional storage is extra.

"On the way to the airport, I quickly became familiar with the controls and was impressed with the customizability of the library," reads a (seemingly fake) Best Buy blog written by one of its store mobile managers. "While I was constrained to listening to the first 30 seconds of the songs (a limitation of the Lite version), there were other features that were excellent (and free) for travel. The album artwork and song lyrics alone were enough to make me not miss the CD experience as I usually do with downloaded music. A number of free tracks and a promise of more free promotional content was another great “selling” point."

While we have yet to test out the new service (the ridiculous 30-second limitation is a big turn-off), Yahoo News reports that it's powered by Catch Media's PlayAnywhere technology. It's also limited in that it will only connect to your iTunes library – the PC client responsible for uploading the music doesn't give an option for choosing different folders. That said, those who don't use iTunes are basically out of luck.

Currently there's no indication of how much storage space will be provided in either service (free, subscription), or if there will be an overall song limit. Best Buy doesn't actually sell digital music as it is, so the service doesn't add the same store-it-for-free bonus like Apple and Amazon.

We finally broke down and took the 16 MB Android app for a brief spin, watching it slowly load for what seemed like eons after its initial installation. Because it's in "free mode," there was no sign of the premium radio stations or anything else other than a promotional audio clip and two sample songs from unknown artists. In fact, the app locked our Motorola DROID to the point where it performed a hard reset. Once the phone returned to normal, we loaded the app again and was greeted by a nag screen asking to upgrade to premium. And again. And again. And again. Uninstalled.

As it stands now, Best Buy might want to reconsider the features of its cloud music service before taking on the competition. Not everyone uses iTunes to download music, and the 30-second limitation is no incentive to dump other cloud music services with richer features.