Apple and Spotify now has a new competitor in the audio streaming business, and it comes from Amazon. Said service is callled Amazon Music Unlimited, and it comes with some pretty interesting features.
Let’s start off with the basics. Currently available only in the U.S., Amazon Music Unlimited appears to be an extension of Amazon Prime Music. Much like any other music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimtied will grant its subscribers access to “tens of millions” of songs.
With Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon is looking to push its AI assistant, Alexa, aggresively. To do so, Amazon has developed features that can only be utilised if one owns an Amazon Echo speaker. With the speaker, the user would be able to navigate the service solely through their voice. For example, a user can request tell Alexa to “play music by the King of Pop,” and Alexa would begin playing songs by Michael Jackson. Thanks to machine learning, Alexa will also be able to customize a playlist based on the user’s listening history.
Pricing is where Amazon Music Unlimited becomes rather confusing, as there are multiple price points depending on various factors. On its own, Amazon Music Unlimited is priced at USD9.99 per month, identical to what Spotify or Apple Music is currently charging. However, if you are an existing Amazon Prime customer, a subscription to the service will cost just USD7.99. If you own an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Amazon Tap device, the subscription gets even cheaper at USD3.99, with the catch that music playback will only work on that device.
Source: Amazon, Ars Technica