Amazon has just unveiled its Amazon Music Unlimited service in the United States, with the Spotify and Apple Music rival launching with on-demand access to millions of songs.
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will work seamlessly through the Amazon Echo speaker range to play any of the service’s millions of tracks from voice command prompts. Echo owners can use the service to choose songs using their voice in a number of ways, including asking for the “latest song” by a specific artist or by providing a sample of a song’s lyrics. User can also launch a playlist by saying its title and name a mood or genre like “play me happy R&B music” and Music Unlimited complies.
Amazon is also offering an Echo-only plan for $3.99 that’ll give you Music Unlimited on a single Echo, Echo Dot, or Amazon Tap. However, the Echo-only plan is limited to only one device – the speaker.
A third subscription option will be a Family Plan, which will let up to six users use the same Music Unlimited account for $14.99/month or $149/year ($12.40/month).
Amazon has been hinting at its desire to enter the music streaming game for some time. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, your price will be $9.99 per month. According to data from USA ratings firm Nielsen, more than half of people who subscribe to a streaming service do so for an audio service such as Spotify or Rdio- not video, such as Netflix or CraveTV.
Amazon is also competing aggressively on price.
Discounts are available to Prime members, however, who can get Music Unlimited for a lower rate of $7.99 a month, or $79.99 a year.
Family plans are not offered just yet, but they’re coming soon. The service can be accessed on a variety of platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows, Sonos, and more.
So why would anyone want Amazon Music Unlimited? People who have the Echo devices can enjoy the music streaming services for $3.99 per month only.
Amazon Music Unlimited is now only available in the United States, though a U.K., German and Austrian release is expected later this year.
