Amazon Adds 100M Songs, Ad-Free Podcasts to Prime

Christmas comes early for Amazon Prime members.

From October 2, Amazon Music offers them a greater array of songs – growing from two million on-demand to 100 million songs – and a large catalogue of podcasts.

The songs come in shuffle mode for any artist, album, or playlist, ad-free, and at no additional cost to their membership.

Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, said the company’s initial offering of two million songs for Prime members “was completely unique” for music streaming at launch.

“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,” Boom said.

“We can’t wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalogue of songs, but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership.”

Australian Prime members pay $6.99 a month or the recommended $59 per year.

Prime Music was launched in Australia in October 2018, with two million songs and more than 200 locally curated playlists and stations based on a wide variety of genres and moods.

Amazon’s podcasts arrived in July 2021, offering 70,000 titles within 12 months.

Its State of Podcast report found that 50% of Australian podcast listeners prefer local podcasts – especially those listening to sports (63%), business and technology (59%), health and lifestyle (58%) and news and politics (56%).

But society and pop culture podcast listeners prefer international content.

From today, Prime members access the (mostly) ad-free top podcasts, including the Wondery catalogue which includes “Dr. Death” and “SmartLess”.

New Amazon Exclusive shows include “MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories”; “Suspect: Vanished in the Snow”; “COLD Season 3: The Search for Sheree”; “Killer Psyche Daily”; and “I Hear Fear”, narrated by actress Carey Mulligan.

Today is also the global premiere of the Amazon Exclusive opinion podcast series “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer”, from the actress/entrepreneur.