Digital Trends - Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 10:36 AM
Amazon rumored to be launching free music-streaming service
[amazon echo alexa device bundle deals 2nd gen and dot 3rd 1500x1000]
Rumors are swirling that Amazon is planning to take on Spotify by launching its
own free music streaming service. Amazon plans to expand its dominance of
e-commerce and its inroads into TV and movie streaming available through its
Amazon Prime Video service, according to
Billboard<https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8506943/amazon-offer-ad-supported-music-service-exclusive>.
The service is rumored to be ad-supported, so it sounds like this won’t be a
way to escape Spotify’s famously annoying
ads<https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/spotify-free-users-skip-ads/>. But this
could be a way for customers to listen to music for free without having to
shell out for an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.
One big open question is how large a library of songs will be available through
the potential Amazon free streaming service. Other competitors to
Spotify<https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/best-music-streaming-services/>,
such as Tidal, have had issues getting the rights to stream a large selection
of songs. Amazon may have an advantage here as it has an existing relationship
with record labels due to its CD sales. And apparently Amazon has offered to
pay labels for the music that it streams, regardless of the ad revenue that the
streams generate.
The competition isn’t only from existing streaming services though. A whole lot
of people use YouTube as a free music streaming service, so Amazon may be
banking on the ability to persuade these people to start using their service
instead. As a brand with huge name recognition — it seems like everyone has an
Amazon Prime account these days — Amazon could be ideally placed to lure people
over.
The ease of integrating music streaming with its Alexa smart speakers could be
a tempting option for customers too, as a 2018 study found that playing music
was the most common use of smart
speakers<https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/smart-speakers-survey/>.
Amazon’s existing Prime service costs $119 a year and includes free deliveries
for Amazon orders, and it additionally sells access to Amazon Music Unlimited
for $9.99 a month or $7.99 for Prime members. Its ambitions towards smart
speaker integration are clear as it also offers a cheaper $3.99 a month
subscription for those who listen only on their Echo device.
With that said, Amazon doesn’t share numbers on how many customers are
currently paying for its music subscription service. It would be hard put to
compete right now with Spotify’s over 200 million users, SoundCloud’s 175
million users, or Apple Music’s 50 million users. Estimates are that Amazon has
around 16 million
users<https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/amazon-music-the-dark-horse-comes-out-of-the-shadows/>,
so they’re clearly looking to increase their market share with this new
reportedly free streaming option.
Editors' Recommendations
https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/amazon-free-music-streaming-rumor/
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.info<http://WWW.DavidGoldfield.info>
