The concept gained some traction six years ago, when such companies as MyPlay.com offered online storage and handed out special promotional tracks issued by record labels. However, when you consider that most Internet users were still using dial-ups during those primitive times, uploading a single MP3 file could take longer than a half hour and uploading an entire music collection seemed more trouble than it was worth.

But in this broadband world in which we live, some people are betting consumers will want online lockers. People like MP3.com founder Michael Robertson.

Now Robertson has a new company, MP3tunes. It features Oboe, an online locker where you can store your digital tracks and then have those same tracks streamed back to you wherever you may be. That is, as long as you’re connected to the Net.

Along with providing storage, Oboe also allows you to transfer tracks you’ve purchased online directly to your locker.

Oboe is offering both a free package and a premium service. The basic service will do just about everything the primo service provides, but limits you to a medium-quality bit rate of 56k for streaming.

However, if you opt for the $39.95 per year premium service, you get high-quality streaming (192k bit rate), unlimited storage and the ability to make backup copies of your online songs, another feature absent in the free service.

Of course, you’re going to want a broadband connection, preferably cable, to take advantage of everything Oboe has to offer. DSL is noticeably slower on the upload than it is on the download.

But if you think online storage is just the ticket for backing up that ever-growing personal music collection, Oboe is definitely worth checking out. Of course, there are other ways to preserve your music, but with Oboe you don’t have to keep track of discs or insert multiple discs into your computer when backing up your collection. Sometimes ease of use is the way to go.