Amazon.com said it has unveiled an online service that would enable its customers to securely store and access music through their smartphones and computers.

Currently available to US customers, Amazon Cloud Service enables customers to securely store music on the company's web servers instead of local hard drives - a type of technology generically known as cloud computing.

Amazon said the new service would allow customers to play music on any Android, Windows and Apple devices.

The company said customers would initially be provided with 5GB of free storage, which can eventually be upgraded to 20GB with the purchase of any MP3 album.

The retailer's move is a further sign of intensifying competition among top technology firms to deliver entertainment content over the internet.

Reuters