Amazon has finally brought its own streaming music service to the UK. It’s a limited service that’s free for Amazon Prime users – members do not need to pay any more to access it.
It doesn’t really take on the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer directly – that’s the job of Amazon Music Unlimited which does cost extra per month.
What is Amazon Prime Music?
Prime Music offers more than a million music tracks or albums to streaming over the internet or download for offline listening without you having to purchase them outright.
There are curated playlists to listen to, which are put together by the Prime team, or you can simply find tracks or albums. Some are suggested through a “recommended” area that promotes albums based on tracks you might have previously bought from Amazon or listened to recently.
There are also charts of popular songs or albums based on what others are listening to. And there are promoted songs, albums and playlists that are new to the platform for you to try. All Prime Music content can be searched for.
How much does it cost?
Prime Music is an additional benefit for Amazon Prime members. That means the annual £79 fee paid by members now includes unlimited music streaming as well.
A Prime membership offers unlimited one-day delivery for millions of items, access to all of the streamed movies and TV shows available on Amazon Prime Video, unlimited cloud photo storage through Prime Photos, access to one eBook at a time through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and now Prime Music too, all for the one annual fee.
An equivalent Netflix subscription costs £7.99 a month for HD (£5.99 for SD), yet is also thrown in as part of Amazon Prime membership – and that’s before you get to the (limited) music streaming.
Therefore, regardless of Prime delivery, Prime Photos or the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, £79 a year for Prime Music and Amazon Instant Video represents amazing value for money.
While Amazon Prime members can invite other members of their family (up to one extra adult and four children) to share their Prime benefits as part of an Amazon Household, that doesn’t include Prime Music.
What is it available on?
Prime Music is now available through any device that has access to an Amazon Music application. That app will also be able to play back any digital music you have bought from Amazon and currently store in the cloud (or downloaded to the device). It also now has a dedicated section for Prime Music content too.
But where’s the catch?
It does all sound too good to be true and in comparison to services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and the rest it sort of is. Prime Music does not offer anywhere near the same amount of content available to stream or download for offline listening and that’s why Amazon Music Unlimited exists: check out our guide to that.