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Amazon Joining Spotify, Apple With New Music-Streaming Service

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As it was predicted, so it has come to pass: after rumors heated up last week that Amazon was close to launching a music-streaming service to rival Spotify and Apple, the company announced today that its on-demand offering Music Unlimited is ready for the masses.

Amazon will charge Prime members $7.99 a month for access to the service, or $79 a year, a significant discount from the monthly fee charged by its rivals. But non-Prime people will pay $9.99 a month, which is right in line with others like Spotify.

There’s also a super-discounted service Amazon is calling an exclusive “for Echo” subscription that costs just $3.99 per month, which gives users full access to Music Unlimited on a single Echo, Echo Dot, or Amazon Tap speaker.

Amazon is touting a catalog of tens of millions of songs, up from the two million offered before, as well as hand-curated playlists and personalized stations. The company is really pushing Music Unlimited as another way for Prime members to get more from its Echo devices and Alexa, with “intuitive new Alexa voice controls that turn your Echo into the ultimate personalized jukebox.”

“No searching or browsing required…just ask,” the company says, adding that Alexa’s advanced machine learning means the “Amazon Music experience will become more conversational and personalized all the time.”

“If you don’t know the name of a song but know a few lyrics, if you want to hear songs from a specific decade, or even if you’re looking for music to match your mood, just ask,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO.

The hope here is that non-Prime members will be more attracted to Echo devices with this new offering, and could start to seek out other Amazon products and services.


by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

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