Amazon Hikes Prices for Music Streaming Service
Another major music streaming service is hiking its subscription price.
Amazon Music Unlimited notified customers on Wednesday evening that it is raising prices for its most popular plans, with the monthly subscription cost for Prime members rising by $1 to $10.99 per month (and to $109.99 yearly); the monthly subscription for non-Prime members rising by $1 to $11.99 per month; and the Unlimited Family Plan rising by $3 per month to $19.99 per month ($199.00 per year).
Amazon Music last raised prices nearly two years ago.
“In order to bring you even more content and new features, we’re updating the price of select Amazon Music Unlimited plans,” the company said in a FAQ explaining the change.
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Amazon Music Unlimited added free audiobooks from sister company Audible last year.
Streaming price hikes often come in waves, and the move by Amazon comes just a few months after the market leader Spotify raised its subscription prices by a similar amount. The number two music streaming service, Apple Music, also raised its subscription price last October.
The music streaming sector is concentrated, with Spotify the market leader, followed by Apple, followed by Amazon Music. YouTube is also in the space with YouTube Music, though that product is more video-focused. There are also some other services with smaller user bases, like Tidal.
And unlike the video streaming marketplace, where Netflix, Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock and others all have vastly different content libraries and strategies, the streaming music sector is comparably commoditized, with essentially the same songs on every platform. That makes the product, or in the case of Amazon Music, the connection to prime, the major differentiators.
