It’s been a big week for ‘free’ music.
First, yesterday (April 18), Google announced that a limited version of its YouTube Music service is now available out of the box on Google Home smart speakers.
Then, as expected, Amazon‘s first ever free-to-users music streaming offering officially went live in the United States.
Amazon’s ad-supported service offers those without an Amazon Prime membership or a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited the opportunity to listen to free music via Alexa-enabled devices.
For example, customers who plug in their Amazon Echo speakers can now ask Alexa to play ‘stations’ based on a song, artist, era, and genre, in addition to hearing some of Amazon Music’s top global playlists including Country Heat, Fuego Latino, and more.
The launch introduces an entry-level free tier to Amazon’s music streaming ecosystem. Amazon customers wishing to hear on-demand music without ads can upgrade to a Prime membership, which will offer them more than 2 million songs to choose from.
And if an Amazon customer wants full, on-demand access to more than 50 million songs, they can sign up to Amazon Music Unlimited – for which a subscription locked to a single Echo device will cost $3.99 per month.
For access to Amazon Music Unlimited across multiple devices, customers pay a $9.99 per month subscription, although those who already pay to be Amazon Prime members only need pay an additional $7.99 per month.Music Business Worldwide
