What you need to know
- Amazon is expanding its music offering to Prime subscribers.
- Prime members will now have access to the entire music catalog of 100 million songs.
- Users will have to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited for access to features like on-demand playback and spatial audio.
While you may be set on your streaming service of choice, Amazon is giving Prime members another reason to consider using Prime Music. The company announced on Tuesday that it's giving members access to its entire catalog of music, which includes 100 million tracks, for no extra cost.
That's a big jump from the 2 million songs Prime members could previously access. This also includes "most top podcasts," and Amazon Exclusive podcast shows without ads.
"We continue to innovate on behalf of our customers, and to bring even more entertainment to Prime members, on top of the convenience and value they already enjoy," says Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music. "We can't wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalog of songs, but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership."
That said, there is a caveat to all of this in that it's still not Amazon Music Unlimited. Users will not have on-demand access to all of these tracks. Instead, they will be available via shuffle play, similar to how Spotify functions for free members on mobile devices. If you want to listen to your tracks on your terms, you'll have to cough up the extra dough for Amazon Music Unlimited.
The subscription is also required if you want high-quality streaming or spatial audio. And while an extra $9 per month may not sound like a lot, this is in addition to the $139 per year that subscribers already have to pay for Prime, thanks to the most recent price hike.
Amazon says All-Access playlists will be available on-demand, which are "tailored to personalized listening preferences." Most ad-free podcasts will also be available on-demand, and the company is rolling out a new feature to help boost its podcast offering. Podcast Previews will provide "curated clips" of shows to help users discover new podcasts.
If you're a Prime member, you can download the Amazon Music app now to take advantage of these new perks.
