Amazon Music has decided to bang on the table, and from today makes available their entire music catalogue, without ads or additional cost, for Prime subscribers. In this way, users can now access 100 million songs without suffering annoying advertising interruptions.
Without a doubt, this represents a huge jump compared to the 2 million songs that were previously playable without ads. But this is not all, since now Amazon also allows you to listen to a selection of its main podcasts without advertising. Among them, those produced by Wondery, ESPN, CNN Y New York Timesamong others, as well as new exclusive productions of the company.
It is worth noting, however, that the release of all Amazon Music songs for Prime subscribers has a little trick. Although the entire catalog is now accessible without ads or extra payments, it is not available on demand, but randomly.
What does this mean? That users will not be able to choose a specific song or album and play it directly, but will have to select a record material, artist or playlist, and the service will be responsible for playing the content at random. It’s basically the same thing Spotify lets non-Premium account holders do, except that Amazon Music won’t bombard Prime subscribers with ads.
It is true that random playback is not to everyone’s taste, but it can be considered as a concession that many may be willing to accept to get access to all the songs on Amazon Music, without the sponsored interruptions.
Other advanced features remain exclusive to Amazon Music Unlimited
Those who benefit most from this new possibility will surely be those who are already subscribed to Prime, but were never attracted to Amazon Music. It is evident that the company founded by Jeff Bezos is trying seduce those who today may choose alternatives such as Spotify or Apple Music.
Of course, those who want more options to freely access the Amazon Music catalog of music and podcasts must pay for the Unlimited subscription. The same, which costs 9.99 euros per month, or 99 euros per year for Prime customers, no longer limits users to random playback, and allows music to be downloaded for offline listening. In addition, it offers support for lossless audio and Dolby Atmos.
Steve Boomvice president of Amazon Music, explained to TheVerge that the main reason for releasing its catalog to Prime was a public demand. Specifically, that the selection of 2 million songs had already fallen short of user preferences. “If you think about it, it’s really the best music service you can get without paying $10 or more every month,” he said.
We’ll see if the new Amazon Music manages to captivate new Prime subscribers. Especially those who are upset by the price increases of Apple Music and Spotify, and who are looking to optimize their expenses.