Amazon’s music streaming service is now available for the iPhone and iPad.
The online company’s Cloud Player app, which allows users to upload new and existing MP3 files to the cloud for playback anywhere, any time, can now be accessed through the Safari browser.
The platform initially launched on Android, as well as through an online Web-based app. What sets it apart from Amazon’s previous Amazon MP3 service is that customers now only need to ever buy a song once. It’s stored forever online, so even if you lose your computer, want to download an album to a different device, or whatever, it can just be pulled from the cloud.
The music doesn’t just stay in an online server that always requires an Internet connection, though. At any time, users can download files from their Cloud Player drive to their local hard drive for offline access.
The addition of iOS support is a bit dubious, since there is no dedicated Amazon MP3 app like there is for Android, but until now the service was not even available for iPhone users who tried to log onto their Amazon account from the phone’s built-in Web browser. With Safari joining the list of compatible browsers, though, it’s now much more accessible than it was before.
Of course, competing in the mobile music space is pretty difficult on an iPhone because of Apple’s hardwired integration to iTunes. But iTunes purchases only give you one static file that can be lost or deleted. Amazon’s service makes that music file available forever, so it will be interesting to see if Apple fans start migrating to that more flexible option.
