Amazon's 100M music catalog now free for Prime members
Previously, members were only offered an ad-free catalog of 2 million songs.
Amazon Music is sweetening the deal for Prime members.
The world's largest online retailer announced Tuesday that members of its subscription service will now have access to Amazon Music's full catalog of 100 million songs in shuffle mode without advertisements and at no additional cost.
Previously, members were only offered an ad-free catalog of two million songs, according to Steve Boom, vice president at Amazon Music.
Apple Music offers more 100 million songs and 30,000 playlists while Spotify has over 80 million tracks, including 4.7 million podcasts.
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As part of its content expansion plan, Amazon Prime members will also get most top podcasts ad-free including Wondery’s catalog of premium shows, along with exclusive shows like "MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories" and Keke Palmer’s new original podcast "Baby, this is Keke Palmer."
The Amazon website is seen on Dec. 5, 2017 in Dandenong, Australia. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Amazon Music says the decision behind the huge increase came after customers pressed for access to a full catalog of music. Now, members will be able to shuffle play any music artist, album or playlist with the option to upgrade to the Amazon Music Unlimited tier to get on-demand access — which has spatial audio along with songs in HD and Ultra HD.
"We continue to innovate on behalf of our customers, and to bring even more entertainment to Prime members, on top of the convenience and value they already enjoy," said Boom.
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This isn't the first time Amazon has upped its perks for members since increasing membership fees earlier this year due to inflation.
Amazon.com
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 173.67 | -2.92 | -1.65% |
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 169.89 | +0.87 | +0.51% |
| SPOT | SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA | 289.01 | +7.67 | +2.73% |
In February, Amazon raised annual memberships to $139 from $119 and monthly Prime memberships to $14.99 from $12.99, which equates to about $180 each year.
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Since then, Amazon has offered not one but two Prime Days for members to get discounts ahead of the shopping holiday. For the first time, Amazon held a second Prime Day event of the year earlier this month, offering Prime members early access to holiday deals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
