Amazon finally launches in Australia, music offering to wait until next year

After months of speculation Amazon finally launched in Australia, promising to undercut local retailers by 30%.

While it is going to be one of the biggest transformations in the retail landscape, those eagerly awaiting for Amazon Music Unlimited will have to waituntil next year – with the company still adding members to its Australian music team as late as last week.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers tens of millions of songs with new releases. Customers can listen ad-free with unlimited skips, and download for offline listening.

It is expected that when it arrives, Amazon will offer it for about $1 or $2 for the first three months.

Overseas it’s available after the trial period for $10 and $8 for Prime members.

However Amazon Prime is not expected to be available in Australia until mid-2018. Those wanting to pre-register can go to amazon.com.au/Prime.

A posting on its updated Australian site explained, “We are working hard to bring Australia the program enjoyed by tens of millions of Prime members around the world. We can’t share everything we’re working on yet.”

In the US, the annual US$99 Prime fee covers music, movie and TV video and gaming streaming.

Among the products already on offer are Kindle and Fire TV (the small stick that plugs direct into TV sets to access streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix), electronics, DVDs, PCs, software, homewares and fashion products.

Amazon is offering free delivery nationwide on orders over $49. Despatched from its fulfilment centre in Dandenong outside Melbourne, it’s promising next-daydelivery to eastern metro for $10 and 1-2 days to Perth for $12.

Analysts suggest that existing Australian retailers will have to drop their prices by 10% – obviously a boon for local customers.

More than that, they’ll have to lift up their level of customer service, or risk the prospect of going out of business.

Amazon started out operations in a garage, and is now worth $US560 billion.