Amazon music streaming finally launches in the US

After months of speculation, Amazon has launched its stand-alone on-demand music streaming service in the US. It offers subscriptions as low as $3.99 per month just for owners of its Amazon Echo speaker.

As reported in TMN, the second service, Amazon Music Unlimited, takes the battle to Spotify and Apple Music.

Its “tens of millions” of songs are from all three major labels, in addition to “thousands” of indies. They can be used on a wide array of devices. Its two-year-old Prime Music only has up to 2 million tracks, and lacks current releases.

But its pricing is the main draw. It is charging $7.99 a month for Prime Music members, compared to the industry rate of $9.99. Amazon Music Unlimited also has a feature called Alexa (similar to Apple’s Siri) which offers consumers the cool option of controlling the service and selecting songs via voice recognition technology.

It has a recommendations engine to find new music; both algorithmic and hand-made playlists; and apps for Android, iOS, Sonos, and desktop (plus Amazon’s Fire tablets and set top boxes).

A new feature Side-by-Side has a collection of artists providing commentary to selected tracks from their catalogue, similar to MTV’s Storytellers. At launch the artists were The Chainsmokers, Jason Aldean, Lindsey Stirling, Sting, Norah Jones, One Republic and Kongos. More will be added, Amazon confirmed.

Amazon’s Prime Music apps have gone through a complete overhaul. There is a greater focus on artist visuals and album artwork, with more effective lyrics integration. The navigation is simpler and, thankfully, it looks better.

Users can also automatically download music Amazon thinks users will like while in the background you’ll always have something to listen to while offline.

The service was available in the US from yesterday. It will be launched in the UK and other parts of Europe later this year. No Australian date has been announced so far.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Amazon Music Unlimited brings real value to the millions of people who are already Prime members, with a choice of subscribing for only $7.99 a month or even $79 per year.

“Plus, customers are going to love Amazon Music’s all-new app for iOS, Android and desktop.

“And if you want a sense of the future of voice-controlled music, go ahead and ask Alexa for a free Music Unlimited trial, and play around on your Echo. If you don’t know the name of a song but know a few lyrics, if you want to hear songs from a specific decade, or even if you’re looking for music to match your mood, just ask.”

At this point, Amazon is not going for artist exclusives like its competitors but has adopted a wait-and-see. It certainly has the funds to bid for these. More digital music offerings are also in the pipeline, the company teases.