There are a lot of things to like about streaming from Amazon Music. As a must-have for those uploading music, the platform is also harnessing a growing fanbase and providing exciting new features, making it something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Offering Amazon Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited, Family Plans and more – it’s undeniable that they are one of the top streaming services available.
Here are 10 things to help you get to know Amazon Music a little better.
1. What Is Amazon Music?
Let’s get the basics out of the way, and quickly define Amazon Music for those who have been under a rock (don’t worry, no hard feelings).
Amazon Music is a digital music streaming service operated by the Amazon company. Launched in 2007, the platform quickly gained traction. Since then, Amazon has expanded their repertoire, added various subscription packages and improved its service. As a company that is used by millions globally, the next step was to conquer music streaming. Knowing the giant that Amazon is, just imagine the many great things that the company incorporates into their streaming service.
2. How Do I Listen To Amazon Music?
Amazon’s music player gives its competitors a run for their money in regard to listening options. Amazon Music download is available on your phone, tablet, Android, Echo Dot, IOS and Web – so, it’s pretty versatile. Amazon Music apps also work with Google’s Android Auto or Apple’s CarPlay, so you can listen to your favourite tracks when driving.
In addition, it’s available on any Alexa-enabled device, plus Fire tablets and Fire TVs. There are also Amazon Music Desktop apps for Mac & PC.
3. The Differences: Amazon Prime Music vs Amazon Music Unlimited + Amazon Music’s Prices
Amazon Music Prime
- If you’re wondering ‘is Amazon Music free with Prime?’ – you’re in luck! It comes as a free benefit with regular Amazon Prime membership. An Amazon Prime membership is $12.99 per month and a Prime Student membership at $6.49 per month.
- Offers over 2 million songs.
- More than 2000 playlists, curated by Amazon’s expert editorial.
- Ad-free streaming and unlimited skips.
- Offline playback.
Amazon Music Unlimited
Wondering ‘how much is Amazon Music Unlimited’ and what more you get? We’ve got you covered below:
- As a Prime member, the Amazon Music Unlimited cost is $7.99 a month (or $79 annually). Non-Prime customers pay $9.99 a month.
- Over 50 million songs are in the Amazon Music library.
- More than 2000 playlists, curated by Amazon’s expert editorial, plus personalised stations.
- Ad-free streaming and unlimited skips.
- Offline playback.
4. Features
Amazon offers a free subscription, which does not offer offline playback. However, Prime and Unlimited both offer offline playback, unlimited song skips, and thousands of expertly curated playlists. Amazon Unlimited also offers streaming in HD quality as well as Ultra HD and 3D playback. They all offer the ability to follow artists.
Speaking of artists, let’s take a look at a few artist-related Amazon Music features, which are all usable on the Amazon desktop app.
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5. Amazon Music Artist Profiles
The artist profile features the ability to favorite artists, add artists’ songs to playlists, related and featured playlists that are curated by Amazon‘s editorial, as well as artist radio stations.
Artists are unfortunately no longer able to claim their Amazon Music page directly, meaning that page updates must be handled by contacting the respective artists’ distribution company. The distributor handles the delivery of songs for artists Amazon Music uploads.
6. How Does Amazon Music Pay Artists?
Amazon pays artists $00.00402 per stream. You would need at least 366,169 streams to earn a monthly living wage in the US from Amazon streams. Artists are paid performance and mechanical royalties from their respective collection society. Payments are usually made quarterly.
You can find out how much you’ve earned from your streams with our streaming royalty calculator! Try it out – it’s entirely free.
7. How To Upload Music To Amazon
Artists can deliver their music to Amazon for streaming and for sale by using a digital distributor such as us at Мusic Gateway! As well as TuneCore, Ditto, CD Baby, UnitedMasters, Symphonic Distribution, Distrokid, and many others. Distributors like Tunecore or Distrokid come with fees, while distributors like Мusic Gateway and UnitedMasters are free.
Our incredible music distribution service gets your music onto all major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. What’s more, you keep 100% of your sales and we don’t get a penny from you.
We also master your music for free to make sure that you sound the best you can before your release. With a free account, you get 2 free songs to start with and you get more based on your plan.
In addition, we offer exclusive sync licensing opportunities and sync representation, as well as press, blog and music promotion Hopefully, you’ll love what we can do for your career and will want to use some of these other amazing services!
8. Amazon Music vs Spotify
When you compare Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify, Amazon is pretty close when it comes to music quality, expert music curation, high-quality streaming, song library building, pays and integration options.
Let’s compare some of the facts:
Pay Per Stream
Amazon pays artists $0.00402 per stream compared to Spotify, which pays $0.00437 per stream.
Alexa
Amazon Music features Alexa voice recognition for music streaming requests. Using Alexa with Amazon also offers the ability to search for songs by mood, lyric, artist, or decade. Spotify also uses Alexa, however, the integration is more limited and this feature works better with Amazon Music. One difference between the two services is that Amazon offers users the ability to get Unlimited for $3.99 per month if they own an Echo device. Plus, you can just ask your Alexa device to start a free trial.
Curated Playlists & Personalisation
Offering thousands of expertly curated playlists and personalised streaming stations, plus live audio streams of Bundesliga soccer matches – you won’t be spoiled for choice. Spotify also offers expert-curated and algorithmic playlists, like Discover Weekly, which is a special playlist that is delivered every Monday.
Countries
Amazon Music is available in 46 countries, whereas Spotify is available in 79 countries.
Pricing
The cost is $9.99 per month to subscribe to Amazon’s Unlimited service. Spotify costs $9.99 per month to subscribe to its premium service, so price-wise, there isn’t a difference. However, if you are already an Amazon Prime user, you can receive Amazon Prime Music at no additional cost, or upgrade to Unlimited for just $7.99 – so there is a saving this way. Additionally, both platforms offer free subscriptions as well as free trials to their paid plans.
If you’d like to compare more streaming services and see Amazon Music vs Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify and more, make sure to look at our guide to music streaming services.
Now that we have compared Amazon and Spotify, let’s continue looking at Amazon’s features.
9. Amazon & Voice-Activated Devices
As mentioned before, Amazon offers the ability to use Alexa to make song searches and requests by voice recognition. When using Alexa, you are able to search for music by artist, lyric, mood, and even decade. This is the most advanced song-searching system for any streaming service out there.
Even as a service that pays less than many other streaming services, Amazon Music still stands as a growing giant in the music streaming world. With advanced features, hands-on editorial curation, voice recognition technology, and high-quality streaming, the platform will continue to grow as a go-to DSP for artists and consumers.
Amazon For Roku
For the many users of Roku, the ability to stream through Amazon Music is also there. Roku users can enjoy all the benefits right from their Roku device, with Alexa also being a usable feature.
10. Different Plan Options
Let’s take a full look at the plans that you can subscribe to:
Amazon Prime Music
This one comes for free. As mentioned earlier, if you’re a Prime user, you have Prime Music.
Amazon Music Unlimited (Ad Supported)
This is a free, ad-supported version of Amazon Music Unlimited.
Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan
This offers over 50 million songs. Subscription costs $7.99 per month (or $79 per year) for Prime members, or $9.99 per month for everyone else.
Amazon Music Unlimited Single Device Plan
This plan is attached to the Amazon Echo device and charges $4 per month to subscribe. It also works the same with Fire devices. This plan is for a single device only.
Amazon Music Unlimited Student Plan
For students, Amazon charges $60 per year for Prime membership. This can also be upgraded to Unlimited for $1 per month.
Amazon Music HD Plan
With this plan, subscribers get the highest digital audio quality, starting with a 90-day free trial, then increasing to $15 per month ($13 for Prime members). The family HD option is $20.
Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan
The Family Plan is $15 per month for everybody. Prime members also receive a yearly discount ($150 per year).
Summary
Questions about any of Amazon’s many features or anything else can be directed to Amazon Music’s customer service. They work actively to solve any issues a customer may have with their Amazon Music subscription. That, and the list of benefits and features listed earlier provide good reason to try it out – and with free trial options, what do you have to lose? Artists should consider focusing on gaining fans from a large audience, so don’t skip out on this platform when uploading music through your distributor.
Most importantly though, don’t forget us here at Мusic Gateway for all of your music distribution needs!
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