Amazon Enters the Music Streaming Business with Launch of Prime Music

Today (Wednesday), Amazon officially enters the music streaming space and is set to compete with Apple and Spotify with Amazon Music Unlimited.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers subscriptions as low as $3.99 per month for owners of Amazon Echo speaker. This is a welcome development in an industry that was stuck to $9.99 subscriptions.

With the new service, users can access a vast catalog of songs on demand, similar to Spotify and Apple Music. Subscriptions to play music on the Echo cost $3.99 per month; for access beyond that device, subscriptions cost $7.99 a month for members of Amazon’s Prime shipping and video service and $9.99 for non-members. Amazon will continue to offer Prime members a limited streaming service for free.

Amazon has built an elaborate system of voice controls for listening on the Echo. The company believes such smart home devices will be a key source of growth for the music industry, said Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music.

“The first phase of growth (in music streaming) was driven almost entirely by smartphones,” he said in an interview. “We believe pretty strongly that the next phase of growth in streaming is going to come from the home.”