Amazon Music is now free to Prime members, but you're at the mercy of shuffle
You'll be able to access over 100 million songs for free if you're an Amazon Prime member
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Amazon Music is free
🎧 Amazon will let Prime subscribers access its entire music library for free
🔀 However, you won’t be able to play songs on demand and will have to make do with shuffle
💯 You can shuffle any artist, album, or playlist from Amazon’s 100 million songs
💰 High-res audio and spatial audio are only available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers
Amazon Prime members can now enjoy Amazon Music for free as part of their subscription, but there’s a catch.
Prime subscribers can access over 100 million songs in Amazon Music, ad-free, but you’ll only be able to shuffle through artists, tracks, and albums (thanks, The Verge). You can’t choose a specific song like ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica but you can enjoy listening to ‘The Black Album’ on shuffle, or Metallica’s entire discography.
Spatial audio and high-res audio are also off the table, meaning you’ll need to pay $9 a month for a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited. Still, if you’re not fussy about listening to songs in order, or can make do without hearing ‘Master of Puppets’ specifically while doing the dishes, it’s a great perk for Prime members to enjoy.
Amazon is also making many of its podcasts available ad-free to Prime subscribers, which is something Amazon’s VP of Amazon Music Steve Boom has said customers have complained about in the past.
Speaking on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Boom said: “When we talk to consumers, what do they want? The biggest thing they don’t like about podcasts is all the ads, not surprisingly. So we focused on building a great catalog of stuff that people like to listen to and making that stuff free.”
Podcasts are getting a bit of an overhaul in general, as you’ll soon be able to listen to a “short, digestible soundbite” which will hopefully be enough to encourage you to commit to an entire episode. It should make discovering new podcasts easier.
Amazon Music still lags behind the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, at least in terms of subscriber numbers, but the company has done a good job of making Amazon Prime more enticing. It’s hard to recall that the $139-a-year service first started out by offering members free next-day delivery and little else.
The move to offer members free music is certainly welcome after Apple Music’s recent price increase and the knowledge that Spotify prices will also rise next year. If you’re ok with your music being at the mercy of shuffle, Amazon Prime could be the most economical way to enjoy your favorite artists.