Amazon has reached licensing deals with the four major U.S. record companies for a music service that lets users store songs remotely and play them online, competing with Apple Inc.’s iTunes.

If your favorite artists are signed to either Sony, EMI, Universal, or Warner, chances are their music will be available through the Amazon Cloud Player. With the agreements, Amazon’s music service will work similarly to Apple iTunes, letting multiple devices access a centrally stored music collection. This is a great move for the online retailer as they are trying to move their Kindle Fire tablet off the shelves.

Amazon said its cloud music users will be able to access songs not only on a Kindle Fire, but also devices running Google's Android operating system, and Apple’s iOS. The songs, also accessible through an Internet browser, will soon be available via Roku Inc.’s streaming service or Sonos Inc.’s home entertainment systems.

Consumers can scan all the songs on their hard drive -- those from iTunes, Windows Media Player and compact discs -- and play them in Amazon’s Cloud Player. Amazon will offer a free version of the service that lets users import as many as 250 songs, as well as a premium version for $24.99 a year that will allow storage of 250,000 songs. Amazon is turning Cloud Drive into a separate service for file storage starting at $10 a year for 20 GB.

[Bloomberg]