If you’re already part of the Amazon ecosystem or own one or more Echo or Fire TV devices, you’re probably familiar with Amazon Prime Music. One reason for this is that many songs have lyrics that can be displayed in time with the music on your TV, in the Alexa app, or on your Echo Show smart display.
Many people think the service is called Prime Music, but that’s just one of three tiers available and the most limited and Amazon actually calls it Music Prime.
Amazon launched Music HD in 2019, which offered CD-quality (or better) sound for those who wanted something other than compressed MP3 quality, as well as a selection of “3D” music that could be listened to on a speaker like than the Amazon Echo Studio. .
However, in May 2021, Amazon integrated this tier into the Unlimited tier, ironically on the same day Apple launched Hi-Fi and spatial streaming.
This means there is a choice to make as well as a selection of plans for unlimited users to choose from. Here we will explain them all so you can see the difference between Prime and Unlimited tiers.
Do Amazon Prime members get Amazon Music for free?
Yes, but it’s not the same as Amazon Music Unlimited or Music Free, so you have to choose which one you want:
So how do they compare? As the Prime part suggests, the first service is included as part of an Amazon Prime subscription which costs £95/US$139 per year and gives you access to around 2 million songs, a fraction of the 90 million songs that you get with Amazon Music Unlimited. , which requires its only monthly cost (see full price table below).
You can listen to any song on-demand, offline, and with unlimited skips on all-access playlists – skips are on other parts of the platform.
As mentioned before, Music HD is now free for unlimited users, making it just part of this service. This means you get much better sound with ‘HD’ (CD quality) or ‘Ultra HD’ with up to 10 times the bitrate of songs streamed via the standard music service – a classic 320 kbps.
If you have a good enough internet connection, a device that supports high-quality audio, and headphones or speakers with a wide enough dynamic range, you will listen to high-resolution audio. Just note that only nine million titles are available in Ultra HD. Note that the single device plan on Unlimited does not have access to HD, Ultra HD, or Spatial Audio.
The Unlimited plan also includes unlimited skips throughout the library, the ability to play any song on-demand and offline.
If you’re not a Prime member, you can still get Amazon Music for free, but through the ad-supported free tier. It includes thousands of free stations and playlists, but no unlimited skips or offline listening.
Like other streaming services, Amazon Prime Music lets you stream music on demand over your internet connection. This can be on your phone, but also on your computer or through an Amazon Echo smart speaker. The latter is one of the most convenient ways to access Prime Music since you can simply ask Alexa to play a song, album, or playlist.
For an in-depth comparison, read Prime Music vs Amazon Music Unlimited.
How much does Amazon Music cost?
This is where things can get a little confusing, so we’ve put together this handy table: Prices shown are per month.
| Individual package | Family package | Student package | Single device (Echo or Fire TV) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Music Prime | £8.99/$14.99 | N / A | N / A | N / A |
| Amazon Music Unlimited | £10.99/$9.99 | £17.99/$16.99 | £5.99/$5.99 | £5.99/$5.99 |
These are the monthly prices, but like we said, you can pay annually if you’re a Prime member, which makes it cheaper. A Prime subscription costs £95/US$139 per year, meaning Prime Music can cost as little as £7.91/$11.58 per month.
The main limitation of the Individual plan is that members of a household must all share the same playlists and library, etc. If you want to have your own “account” that contains only the music and playlists you love, then you will need a Family plan. which costs £17.99/$16.99. It lets you stream on up to six devices at the same time.
The outlier is the ability to get Music Unlimited on a single Amazon Echo or Fire device for £5.99/$5.99. This is great if you only have one Echo, or just one that you usually listen to music through. But you won’t be able to listen to the full library of 50 million songs on other Echos you own, or play those tracks using the Echo’s multiroom audio feature.
Students (enrolled at an accredited college or university) can get Music Unlimited at a discounted price of £5.99/$5.99 in the UK.
How can I listen to Amazon Prime Music?
There are many ways to listen to Amazon Music. You can ask Alexa to play songs on your Echo, but you can also download the Amazon Music app. It’s the same app you’ll get if you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited and it’s simply called Amazon Music.
This is what it looks like on an iPhone:
The apps do exactly what you’d expect: you can search for songs, create your own playlists, listen to tracks on demand, and download them to your device so you can listen without an internet connection. All this with ad-free playback.
Amazon Music is also available through a web browser.
A full list of supported devices can be found on the Amazon website.
What is my music on Amazon Music?
One of the tabs in the app is My Music. This contains music you have purchased on Amazon and may include CDs you have purchased using Amazon’s “autorip” feature which gives you access to MP3 versions.
Looking for alternatives to Amazon Music? Check out our comparison of all the best music streaming services.
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