SkyDrive and punk rawk go well together, says our editor
Microsoft has reportedly added support for album art in its SkyDrive cloud storage service, which could be the first step in the direction of a Windows integrated Xbox Music solution. Xbox Music is set to replace the current Zune Pass that many have grown fond of with unlimited access to a large library of music. Should one happen to upload music files to their SkyDrive account, album art is reported to be automatically added once detected.
Like Liveside.net who first reported this, we're not entirely sure if this is new or we're just noticing it for the first time. Either way, consider it as more evidence that indeed SkyDrive is quite awsome.
Microsoft announced the upcoming Xbox Music service back at E3, and has since updated both the Zune and Xbox websites to reflect the successor, but we're still unsure as to what's exactly on the horizon for Windows users with the Xbox Music service. How Zune Pass, Windows Phone, Windows, SkyDrive and the Xbox will come together to form a new multi-platform music product is still a shrouded mystery.
Music playback is limited to single selection on Windows Phone, saving to local storage on the website interface, and through the Windows 8 SkyDrive app. We'd expect a more feature rich and user friendly experience to be present once Xbox Music is released, should SkyDrive be used in Microsoft's plan for media world domination. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft handles both a subscription service for unlimited access, as well as possible storage for already owned music (much like Apple's iTunes Match).
Another question could be will there be competitor platform support through SkyDrive apps? Microsoft could attack Apple on its doorstep with a new music service available for OSX users - especially since there are Windows Phone fans that use Apple hardware (think Windows Phone Connector for Mac and the native SkyDrive client).
We've attempted to upload our own music collection to see how SkyDrive handles the variety album art, and can confirm that album art is indeed applied to music files that are uploaded to cloud storage. Have you noticed album art populating your SkyDrive-stored music collection? Let us know in the comments.
Source: LiveSide
