Amazon.com has launched its Amazon Music Unlimited music streaming services, with prices from USD 3.99 per month for owners of its Amazon Echo speaker, and a promotional 30-day free trial. Subscriptions cost USD 7.99 per month for members of Amazon’s Prime shipping and video service and USD 9.99 per month for non-members.
The service gives access to a catalogue of millions of songs on demand. Users can use the Echo smart speaker to verbally ask for single songs using title or lyrics, for playlists by theme or for music genre. The Echo smart speaker, released last year, responds to voice commands.
Amazon believes this kind of smart home devices will be a key source of growth for the music industry, Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, told Reuters. "The first phase of growth (in music streaming) was driven almost entirely by smartphones," he said in an interview. "We believe pretty strongly that the next phase of growth in streaming is going to come from the home." Boom said he is optimistic that the new prices will expand the market.
