What you need to know
- Amazon announced new prices for select Amazon Music Unlimited plans.
- The service is raising its individual plan from $8 to $9 per month.
- Its single-device plan will go up to $5 a month.
One of Amazon Music's value propositions is its lower monthly subscription rate for Prime members compared to some of the best music streaming services, such as Spotify and YouTube Music. But that's about to change, sort of.
Amazon has announced that the subscription fee for its music streaming service will be increased beginning May 5. As a result, Prime members will pay $8.99 per month or $89 per year for Amazon Music Unlimited. This is an increase from $7.99 per month or $79 per year previously.
The upcoming change nearly removes the discount that Prime members get when paying for Amazon Music Unlimited in addition to their regular Prime subscription, as noted by Engadget. When the price hike takes effect, they'll only get a $1 discount compared to non-Prime members.
"To help us bring you even more content and features, we're updating the prices of select Amazon Music Unlimited plans," Amazon said on a FAQ page announcing the change.
Nonetheless, Amazon's music streaming service is still less expensive than the competition. Non-Prime subscribers will continue to pay $10 per month, which is the same as Spotify and YouTube Music.
For a single-device plan, the price will go up to $4.99 a month from $3.99. This particular plan only allows you to listen to songs on a single Echo or Fire TV device.
Music Unlimited currently offers access to 90 million songs in HD and millions of songs in Ultra HD. There's also a growing catalog of spatial audio content, which was rolled out to the best Android phones late last year.
In addition, Amazon has a condensed version of its music streaming service called Amazon Prime Music, which is included for free with your Prime subscription. That said, it's only limited to two million songs.
The price change comes just a few months after Amazon raised the annual price of Amazon Prime from $119 to $139, owing to higher wages, transportation costs, and expanded Prime benefits. It was the first increase of this kind in four years.
The latest price hike will apply to your next billing period after May 5. If you're in a trial period, though, Amazon says you'll still get the discounted price for the rest of your promotion period before the new pricing goes into effect.
