Best Buy has entered the cloud-based music storage fray with a service named Best Buy Music Cloud. The program's pared-down Web and desktop presences have very little information on the details of how the service is supposed to work, but the basic uploading and listening functionalities on those incarnations appear to have made it into the soft launch intact.

According to Digital Trends, the service hasn't "officially" launched yet, though the website and desktop apps are fully accessible and based on PlayAnywhere technology by Catch Media. Users can sign up at the website right now, where the first form you're given to fill out is one about the make, carrier, and number of your cell phone (though this step is skippable).

In the next step, users can download the desktop app that will ostensibly begin syncing music and playlists from your iTunes library to the cloud (though at this time, our app has been stuck on the 62nd song of 5,606 for about 15 minutes). If you happened to give Best Buy your phone's information, around this time you'll get a text message telling you the mobile native apps aren't available yet, along with an activation code.

Best Buy's service, similar to Apple's iTunes in the Cloud, will allow users to pin songs down to their devices so they don't always have to be streamed, which saves a little on the limited data plans afforded most smartphones. The service has two pricing tiers: free, described in one line as "web + limited only" on the Web player, and a premium version for $3.99. Boy Genius Report says only premium subscribers will have access to the mobile apps for the service.

Worse, according to this Best Buy blog post, the free version only lets customers hear the first 30 seconds of their own songs. Best Buy did not respond immediately to requests for clarification on this and other aspects of the cloud music service.