Amazon Has a New Way for You to Stream Music Free, No Prime Membership Required
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Amazon just announced that its free, ad-sponsored, music streaming service will now be available on virtually all smartphones and tablets — even if you don't pay for a subscription with Amazon Prime or Amazon Music.
Amazon's free music streaming tier, which features “top playlists and thousands of stations” according to a company blog post this week, originally launched exclusively for Echo smart speaker devices in April 2019. But now you can also listen via iOS and Android devices, as well as Fire TV accounts.
To stream music for free on Amazon, all you have to do is go to music.amazon.com or use the Amazon Music app. There is no membership payment required.
What songs can you stream for free at Amazon? Well, those who hold the exclusive benefits of the mega-retailer’s paid music streaming service near and dear still have reason to pay their monthly fees. The free tier does not give users access to most of the benefits that Prime Members and Amazon Music do. Namely, the 2 million (Prime Music) or 50 million lossless/high-res (Music Unlimited) songs available to those who pay for a Prime Membership or the top tier of Amazon Music. Unlike other free versions of music streaming platforms (cough cough, Spotify), the free version of Amazon Music has a very finite amount of music available to users.
If you want more music than what the free version allows, but you'd rather not pay the full price for an Amazon Prime membership ($119 per year or $12.99 per month), Amazon Music has quite a few — and honestly somewhat confusing — different pricing options. Here’s a breakdown:
Amazon Music HD
"Premium quality music” with over 50 million songs available in High Definition and millions more in Ultra HD. $12.99 per month for Prime Members and $14.99 per month for everyone else.
Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon’s standard music subscription service with "tens of millions of songs and thousands of expert-programmed playlists and stations" available on all devices. $7.99 per month for Prime Members and $9.99 for everyone else.
Amazon Music Unlimited on a single device
$3.99 per month, plus, y’know, the cost of purchasing an Echo device or Fire TV.
Amazon Prime Music
Free access to over 2 million songs and 2,000 playlists with standard Prime membership.
Amazon Music Free
Top playlists and thousands of streaming stations available for free, but it includes audio advertisements.
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