Apple's iTunes to Face Amazonian Competition

Although many have heard about Amazon.com's

Cloud music player, Apple's

iTunes platform still tends to dominate the music-player industry. A new "scan and match" feature is ready to change all that, as it has enabled Amazon to put its music service up against the ripe and prevailing competition. According to

, Amazon will be better positioned to compete with not only Apple, but Google

Music following the implementation of fresh technology. Scan and match is set to enable the service to pull data from customer's iTunes and Microsoft

Windows Media Player libraries, allowing all songs (except those coded with D.R.M. copy protection) to instantly appear in the Cloud player for free, while upgrading to a higher-quality 256Kbps audio. Striking while the iron is hot, Amazon has clearly seen a chance for advancement as Google's music service "Play" has been

with licensing issues as of late. While this is not the first upgrade in Cloud's revamp, (the retail website has been working on a number of tune-ups), it certainly has come at a time of great opportunity. Along with scan and match, Amazon's Cloud Player will offer a bevy of additional features – one providing Kindle Fire, Android, iPhone, iPod touch, and web browser users with access to Cloud from anywhere, ZDNet noted. Amazon is looking to add support to other top systems as well. "Additionally, Amazon MP3 purchases -- including music that customers purchased in the past -- will be automatically saved to Cloud Player so that customers have a secure and free backup copy of the music they buy from Amazon," ZDNet reported. As the Cloud Player continues to endure feature add-ons and alterations, Amazon certainly has its work cut out to battle against the industry's leading music platform. News spread today that Apple has booked an event for September 12, likely to reveal an iPhone 5 announcement, according to Jefferies. With hyped followers ready to delve into i-mania once more, all Apple products will likely get a boost in the coming quarter from increased news coverage and reviews of the new device. Amazon is trading around $232 Wednesday afternoon, up nearly 34 percent year-to-date.