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It's free with Prime and cheaper than other alternates for the paid version if you have Prime. For casual listening it's not bad at all. It also supports so ca

by yumraj 5y ago

It's free with Prime and cheaper than other alternates for the paid version if you have Prime. For casual listening it's not bad at all. It also supports so called HD and Ultra HD, which I believe Spotify still doesn't support, while Apple does.

paxys 5y ago
It is not free with Prime, just $2 cheaper ($8 vs $10/mo). I think what is driving Amazon Music subscriptions is the proliferation of Echo devices. It is easy to auto-subscribe from the speaker itself (sometimes too easy, to the point of being accidental), e.g. when you ask it to play a song.
- jasode 5y ago
  >It is not free with Prime, just $2 cheaper There's a free tier Amazon Music of 2 million songs included with Prime membership. That's the free music streaming my friend was using for 5+ years. She then upgraded to Amazon Music Unlimited for extra $80/year. Can't tell if the article's 13% for Amazon Music is counting the free tier users.
  - paxys 5y ago
    In that case every Prime member is a subscriber, and that number should be a lot larger.
    - sofixa 5y ago
      Nah, I'm a Prime subscriber and get the occasional email from Amazon that i have an unused advantage from my subscription and should enable Amazon Music.
- yumraj 5y ago
  As sibling comment also noted, there is a free tier that we've been using forever. They also have a much cheaper option for students, I think $1/month or something like that. Not sure if every Prime user uses Amazon Music, and how they count their user base.
zwaps 5y ago
What is the meaning of HD and ultra HD for music?
- bee_rider 5y ago
  I'm sure it is just a marketing term that they've come up with. https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/why-hd https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/why-hd HD: 'CD quality audio (aka, “lossless”)' Ultra HD: 'Better than CD quality audio (up to 24 bit, 192 kHz)'
bee_rider 5y ago
Does Apple or Spotify have some sort of extra feature over Amazon that would appeal to non-casual listeners? I had Apple for a bit, switched over to Amazon because of the Prime discount... while I'm aware that morally I should de-Amazon my life, the service is pretty convenient.
- fullstop 5y ago
  For me, Spotify is everywhere. It works on Google Home, Echo, Xboxes, PC, Linux, Android, etc. For quite a while, Google Music wouldn't work on Echo devices and Amazon Music wouldn't work on Google Home. Spotify worked everywhere, had native applications, and a decent value for a family plan.
  - bee_rider 5y ago
    Interesting. I've got Linux, Windows, and iOS here. The main annoyance of Amazon is that they don't appear to have a native client for Linux. At least not in my repo. I don't really mind the web interface, the higher bitrates are limited to the native client for some silly reason. As it is... I just end up plugging my phone into my dac/amp as a (pretty stupid, IMO) workaround.

by yumraj 5y ago

paxys 5y ago

It is not free with Prime, just $2 cheaper ($8 vs $10/mo). I think what is driving Amazon Music subscriptions is the proliferation of Echo devices. It is easy to auto-subscribe from the speaker itself (sometimes too easy, to the point of being accidental), e.g. when you ask it to play a song.

jasode 5y ago
>It is not free with Prime, just $2 cheaper There's a free tier Amazon Music of 2 million songs included with Prime membership. That's the free music streaming my friend was using for 5+ years. She then upgraded to Amazon Music Unlimited for extra $80/year. Can't tell if the article's 13% for Amazon Music is counting the free tier users.
- paxys 5y ago
  In that case every Prime member is a subscriber, and that number should be a lot larger.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    Nah, I'm a Prime subscriber and get the occasional email from Amazon that i have an unused advantage from my subscription and should enable Amazon Music.
yumraj 5y ago
As sibling comment also noted, there is a free tier that we've been using forever. They also have a much cheaper option for students, I think $1/month or something like that. Not sure if every Prime user uses Amazon Music, and how they count their user base.

zwaps 5y ago

What is the meaning of HD and ultra HD for music?

bee_rider 5y ago
I'm sure it is just a marketing term that they've come up with. https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/why-hd https://www.amazon.com/music/unlimited/why-hd HD: 'CD quality audio (aka, “lossless”)' Ultra HD: 'Better than CD quality audio (up to 24 bit, 192 kHz)'

bee_rider 5y ago

Does Apple or Spotify have some sort of extra feature over Amazon that would appeal to non-casual listeners? I had Apple for a bit, switched over to Amazon because of the Prime discount... while I'm aware that morally I should de-Amazon my life, the service is pretty convenient.

fullstop 5y ago
For me, Spotify is everywhere. It works on Google Home, Echo, Xboxes, PC, Linux, Android, etc. For quite a while, Google Music wouldn't work on Echo devices and Amazon Music wouldn't work on Google Home. Spotify worked everywhere, had native applications, and a decent value for a family plan.
- bee_rider 5y ago
  Interesting. I've got Linux, Windows, and iOS here. The main annoyance of Amazon is that they don't appear to have a native client for Linux. At least not in my repo. I don't really mind the web interface, the higher bitrates are limited to the native client for some silly reason. As it is... I just end up plugging my phone into my dac/amp as a (pretty stupid, IMO) workaround.