Microsoft may bring a music player feature to its SkyDrive cloud storage service.

That would mean if you have songs saved to SkyDrive you could play them from any browser or mobile device, similar to how Google Play Music or Amazon Cloud Player work.

The website LiveSide found references to a SkyDrive music player in SkyDrive.com codes, as well as related images from an internal testing version of SkyDrive.com.

It’s not clear how a SkyDrive music player would relate to Xbox Music, but it's a good bet the two will be integrated.

That's because Xbox Music is the default music app that’s front and center on the start screen of every Windows 8 PC. Also, when Microsoft launched Xbox Music in October, the service came with the ability to scan your local system for music files that you own, match them to the store, and then mark them as "owned" for streaming to other devices, as long as they're available as streaming-capable songs in the service.

As for songs on your system that aren’t matched, such as live recordings or strange albums that aren't in Microsoft's database, Microsoft at the time promised the ability to upload those tracks to a locker as part of a future update.

The proliferation of cloud storage services has made people increasingly accustomed to having access to their files and media whenever and wherever they want them.

Considering that SkyDrive is easily available outside of Windows and Windows Phone on platforms including Mac, iOS and Android, Microsoft appears positioned to give them that option.

Amazon Cloud Player and Google Play already let you upload music to the cloud and then stream songs to your various mobile devices instead of having to store them there. A Microsoft option would be a welcome addition.