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Posted by: Mart!n 12th October 2016, 02:34 PM

According to a Music Week article Amazon have started their streaming service today only applies to US though, UK will follow later in the year.

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After months of speculation, Amazon has today announced a full-fledged music streaming service, offering subscriptions as low as $3.99 per month for owners of its Amazon Echo speaker.

Designed to go head-to-head with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music in the streaming market, Amazon Music Unlimited, the service lets offers access a vast bank of songs on demand, yet, unlike its competitors, offers a far more flexible pricing model compared the $9.99 per month industry standard.

Subscribers to the service on the firm’s Echo speakers will only be charged $3.99 per month; while the cost for Amazon Prime subscribers is $7.99 per month.

Those who subscribe to neither of those services will be charged – you guessed it - $9.99 per month.

Aside from a more flexible pricing model, Amazon Music Unlimited will also differentiate itself in the mark with a new feature called Alexa, which is essentially Amazon's own version of Apple's Siri. This will allow users to control the service and select songs via voice recognition technology.

The service is available in the US from today and will be launching in the UK an other parts of Europe later this year.

“Amazon Music Unlimited brings real value to the millions of people who are already Prime members, with a choice of subscribing for only $7.99 a month or even $79 per year," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "Plus, customers are going to love Amazon Music’s all-new app for iOS, Android and desktop. And if you want a sense of the future of voice-controlled music, go ahead and ask Alexa for a free Music Unlimited trial, and play around on your Echo. If you don’t know the name of a song but know a few lyrics, if you want to hear songs from a specific decade, or even if you’re looking for music to match your mood, just ask.”


Source: MW

Posted by: vidcapper 13th October 2016, 09:34 AM

QUOTE(Mart!n @ Oct 12 2016, 03:34 PM)

Posted by: Ethan 14th October 2016, 07:38 PM

they’ve somewhat missed the boat ~ this will be fighting for the scraps~

Posted by: 24k Cody 14th October 2016, 07:40 PM

So the charts are gonna become even staler now?

Posted by: JosephStyles 14th October 2016, 07:49 PM

Doubtful! I can't see this catching on when people can just use Spotify for free, look at Apple Music for example, it barely makes any impact on the chart.

Posted by: Robbie 14th October 2016, 09:49 PM

I thought Amazon had already started a streaming service with Amazon Prime? That started a couple or so years ago.

Posted by: *Ben* 15th October 2016, 06:26 AM

QUOTE(Robbie @ Oct 14 2016, 11:49 PM)

Posted by: ben08 14th November 2016, 06:01 PM

It's now available in the UK.

Music Week
Amazon’s new streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited, is now available in the UK, having been rolled out in the US last month.

With its new launch, Amazon is looking to go head-to-head with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal in the streaming market, boasting a catalogue of over 40 million songs and, most interestingly, a potentially game-changing price point.

While Apple Music and Tidal have looked to exclusive releases and content to chip away at Spotify’s market dominance, neither have been able to break away from the industry-standard £9.99 per month subscription fee. With Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon Prime members will be able to sign up to the service for just £7.99 per month, while those content with listening to music in the home can enjoy the service through an Amazon Echo speaker for just £3.99 per month.

Another key feature of Amazon Music Unlimited is Alexa – its voice control function that allows customer with an Echo speaker to control everything from song selection, volume control, playlists and a whole host more by simply talking to the speaker.

Users can ask Alexa to identify a song by saying some of its lyrics out loud, while, if you’re looking for music of a particular mood, you can ask, Alexa, play ‘90s indie, and it’ll immediately play a popular song from the genre and period stated. You can even order taxis and takeaways using the service.

With Alexa, customers can also listen to the Side By Side feature, whereby asking, for example, Alexa, play Sting Side By Side, Sting will then offer a commentary either his latest album/single. Side By Sides are currently available from Emeli Sandé, The Chainsmokers, Sting, Two Door Cinema Club, Madness, Norah Jones, The Shires and Michael Buble, with more being added.

“We’ve been thrilled with customer reaction to the launch of Amazon Music Unlimited in the US last month and we’re excited to quickly bring the service to customers in the UK,” said Steve Boom, VP Amazon Music. “Starting today, Amazon Music Unlimited offers our UK customers playlists and stations curated by our music experts in the UK, featuring leading British and international artists – we think customers are going to love it.”

“Amazon Music Unlimited brings real value to the millions of people in the UK who are already Prime members, with a choice of subscribing for only £7.99 a month or even £79 per year,” added Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “And if you want a sense of the future of voice-controlled music, go ahead and ask Alexa for a free Amazon Music Unlimited trial, and play around on your Echo. If you don’t know the name of a song but know a few lyrics, if you want to hear songs from a specific decade, or even if you’re looking for music to match your mood, just ask. Our U.S. customers love Amazon Music Unlimited on Echo, and we think our UK customers will too.”

Posted by: vidcapper 16th November 2016, 12:12 PM

QUOTE(ben08 @ Nov 14 2016, 06:01 PM)