Microsoft reportedly set to bake music player into SkyDrive

Google’s done it, so has Apple and Amazon. Hell it even looks like BlackBerry’s getting in on the action. Now Microsoft looks set to bake a music player into SkyDrive.

According to Liveside, the Redmond-based tech giant is close to putting a music player into SkyDrive, meaning that it is likely gearing up to release a cloud-based music locker.

What this boils down to is that people will able to play music stored on SkyDrive from any browser or app that integrated with the cloud-storage service.

As PC Mag points out however, it’s unclear just how deeply (if at all) the service will integrate with Microsoft’s recently launched Xbox Music service.

The confusion around the issue is understandable. When Microsoft launched the service, which allows people to listen to music on their gaming consoles or any devices running Windows 8 or RT, it promised that a cloud player was coming.

“Available in the coming year, a scan-and-match feature will take you beyond the 30 million tracks globally offered through Xbox Music. It will add all the music you own to your Xbox Music cloud catalog, including music acquired through other services. This means you can add almost any content you have to your personal Xbox Music collection, even if it’s not available in the Xbox Music catalog,” Microsoft said at the time.

Given how solidly Xbox has performed for Microsoft integrating the two services makes sense. Doing so would likely give it a much clearer advantage against the likes of Google and Amazon, who have a significant head start on it. Another potential bonus of rooting the service in SkyDrive is the fact that the cloud-storage service is available on all the major OSes.