by 
Updated on December 10, 2021
This week, Amazon announced its own streaming music service, Amazon Music Unlimited. The service sees Amazon hoping to go up against Spotify and Apple Music.
Amazon Music Unlimited is available at the standard $9.99 a month rate that other music services charge. It also offers a similar number of songs as Spotify and company. A family plan is also available for $14.99 a month, or $149 a year.
However, what sets Amazon’s service apart from the others is that there’ll be two cheaper plans available. Amazon Prime subscribers can subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited for $7.99 a month, or $79 a year. Owners of the Amazon Echo can subscribe to an Echo-only plan for $3.99 a month. However, the Echo-only plan is just that—not available on phones, tablets, etc., or even on more than one Echo device. Additionally, a Prime subscription’s still required.
The old Prime Music service, still limited to a few million songs, is still available to Prime subscribers for free.
Of course, the question remains: will Amazon’s service will be a success? Those heavily invested in Amazon’s ecosystem (such as Fire tablet or Echo owners) might be interested. Existing Prime subscribers might also be interested; it’d save a few dollars over other services.
I’m not sure non-Prime subscribers will find much reason to choose Amazon Music Unlimited over other services. I also agree with CNET (warning: autoplay video)—the Echo-only service doesn’t sound like it’s worth it.
Amazon’s obviously hoping to attract users based on its existing media ecosystem, plus inexpensive pricing.
My usage of Amazon as a music service has mostly been for buying MP3 singles. I never used their music streaming service when I had Prime.
Do you use Amazon’s music services? Or have any interest in Amazon Music Unlimited?
