Techniques for providing multimedia content by a cloud media player are described herein. In some embodiments, the cloud media player is hosted by one or more servers that include one or more processors and a non-transitory memory. The cloud media player receives a request to play a media content item at a client device. The cloud media player identifies, based at least in part on client conditions at time of the request, one or more units of the media content item for the client device to download according to a manifest obtained and parsed by the one or more servers. The cloud media player then signals to the client device the one or more units to download.