{"id":644780,"date":"2019-04-18T20:55:34","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Amazon<\/div>

Billboard recently reporte"},"modified":"2019-04-18T20:55:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:55:34","slug":"amazon-strikes-at-spotify-with-new-free-streaming-music-with-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/04\/18\/amazon-strikes-at-spotify-with-new-free-streaming-music-with-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon strikes at Spotify with new free streaming music with ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Amazon<\/div>\n

Billboard recently reported that Amazon had entered discussions to launch an answer to Spotify\u2019s free music streaming tier, and apparently, those talks were productive. The Seattle company today announced an ad-supported Amazon Music option that\u2019s available through Alexa-enabled devices in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Amazon Music\u2019s free offering has a limited catalog, and Amazon\u2019s reportedly offered to initially pay some record labels per stream in order to obtain the necessary music licenses, regardless of how much advertising it sells.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers now have access to play a station based on a song, artist, era, and genre, and to hear some of Amazon Music\u2019s top global playlists including Country Heat, Fuego Latino, and more,\u201d Amazon wrote in a blog post. \u201cSince the launch of Amazon Music, customers have been able to use the simplicity and magic of voice to request music in fun, innovative ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

It joins Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited in Amazon\u2019s family of music streaming plans, the latter of which includes access to 50 million songs that can be streamed or downloaded to listen anywhere, along with thousands of curated playlists, personalized stations, and commentary from selected artists. (Prime Music has more than two million songs, and is included with Amazon Prime, which costs $13 per month or $119 per year.) Music Unlimited starts at $8 per month for Prime members or $10 per month for non-Prime members (or $15 per month for up to six family members), and customers who sign up through an Echo device receive a special rate of $4 per month (but can only use Music Unlimited on that single device).<\/p>\n

On Echo devices, Prime Music and Music Unlimited offer a dialogue-driven search feature that lets subscribers find new playlists through voice. Additionally, Alexa considers play count, era, favorite genres, and other factors when users ask to hear a track, and New Release Notifications lets them follow artists and receive notifications when new songs or records become available on Amazon Music.<\/p>\n

Amazon Music Unlimited launched in October 2016 in the U.S. before later expanding to the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Mexico. Amazon hasn\u2019t disclosed publicly how many paying music subscribers it has, but reports last year pegged the number at over 20 million \u2014 far short of Spotify\u2019s 96 million and 116 million paying subscribers and free users, respectively.<\/p>\n

Uncoincidentally, Google this afternoon brought its free, ad-supported music streaming service \u2014 YouTube Music \u2014 to Google Home smart speakers, as well as its Pixel Buds earbuds and products from Sonos, Bose, Polk, and other third-party manufacturers.<\/p>\n

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