Amazon, as you may have heard, announced a new service called on Tuesday. The service gives you a free 5GB of online storage for your music, then lets you stream your songs on-demand from the Web or any Android device. You can get additional storage for a dollar per year per gig.

The service couldn't be simpler: You use Amazon's PC-based tool to find all the music on your computer and dump it onto Amazon's servers. You install app onto your Android phone and, if you have one, your Android tablet, too. Then, wherever you are -- whatever device you're using -- you can pull up your tunes and play 'em as if they were right there with you.

The concept itself, of course, is nothing new: Smaller companies such as and have offered similar services for some time. Even so, make no mistake about it: Amazon's entry into the realm of online music streaming has the potential to seriously shake up the Android landscape.

When you look at the scenario surrounding Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, one thing becomes increasingly clear: Amazon is working to position itself as the de facto content provider for the Android platform. And Cloud Drive and Cloud Player are crucial new steps in that process.