Amazon Music: Test | Fee | Overview of Supported Devices

This is what a music service can provide

Over 60 million songs, live football broadcasts and lossless audio quality are available on request. Amazon Music provides a wide range of music streaming services and is particularly attractive to Prime customers and Echo owners due to discounts. But can the offer convince people outside the Amazon world? We test.

table of Contents

1. Fees and packages
   

2. Platform support
   

3. Music products and other content
   

   1. Radio dramas and audio books
      

   2. podcast
      

   3. radio station
      

   4. Live football on Amazon Music
      

   5. Amazon Music Original
      

   6. 3D music
      

   7. Music video
      

   8. Upload your own song
      

4. Streaming quality
   

   1. Data consumption of average long titles
      

5. Operation and user interface
   

6. Extra features
   

   1. Equalizer
      

   2. lyrics
      

   3. Sleep timer
      

   4. Block inappropriate content
      

   5. Offline mode
      

7. Amazon Artist Music
   

8. Advantages compared to other services
   

9. in conclusion
   

Since 2008, Amazon has been providing its own music streaming service through Amazon Music, so it directly competes with Spotify, Apple Music and Co .. Over time, the mail order company expanded its music platform and now offers a completely free music platform. High-quality, high-resolution tariffs. On paper, Amazon Music sounds not only promising, but also has a huge music catalog and a wide variety. But actually? What are the advantages and what are the main disadvantages? You can find all this information in the detailed test about Amazon Music below.

Overview of important information:

• Over 60 million songs
• Uncompressed quality on request
• Millions of songs in UHD resolution
• Exclusive content
• Discounts are very attractive to Prime customers and Echo owners

Fees and packages

Amazon Music offers a wide range of tariffs and different prices for non-Amazon customers, Prime users and Echo owners. Amazon Music Free is completely free and can be used by everyone, but relies on ads between the songs being played. There are some restrictions: the music can only be played in random mode, and playing some songs directly does not work. Without offline mode, you can only skip six tracks per hour.

Anyone who is an Amazon Prime customer will automatically access Amazon Prime Music for free. There are over 2 million songs and thousands of playlists, and the choice of Prime Music tracks is constantly changing. The restrictions of Amazon Music Free no longer apply, and the service provides the same features as Amazon Music Unlimited, but the music options are relatively few.

Amazon Music Unlimited for non-primary customers costs 9.99 euros per month, and families that can accommodate up to six users pay 14.99 euros. Students pay a monthly music fee of 4.99 euros. Anyone who is already a Prime customer can purchase Amazon Music Unlimited, paying 7.99 euros per month, or 79 euros or 149 euros per year for the family. Do you have Echo speakers from Amazon? Then, you only need to pay 3.99 euros per month to access, but you cannot use the service on your mobile phone and Co.

For users without Prime members, the high-resolution Amazon Music HD costs 14.99 euros per month, and families can use the service for 19.99 euros. On the other hand, major customers use an uncompressed price of 12.99 euros, and families pay 14.99 euros per month. If you have already used an unlimited subscription, you can use Music HD at an additional cost. New customers can usually try Amazon Music Unlimited and Music HD for 30 days for free.

Telekom StreamOn and Vodafone Music Pass options include Amazon Music. Therefore, the data consumption of the application is not counted in the volume you carry with you. On the other hand, along with other providers, mobile streaming media is billed regularly through your data volume.

Platform support

You can use Amazon Music on countless devices because the platform support is very large. Therefore, you can listen to music on mobile phones, PCs, cars, smart speakers and various other devices, we have listed these music below. Unfortunately, Amazon has not announced any official partners, so if in doubt, you must ask the hardware manufacturer before buying a device or using an existing device.

Amazon Music HD has some limitations because not every device can handle lossless music. Amazon provides some help and some clues on its website. The minimum requirements for high-resolution tariffs for your hardware are as follows.

Music products and other content

Amazon Music has more than 60 million songs, and its music catalog is similar in size to other services such as Deezer or Apple Music. You won't find any big gap here, all well-known artists and their songs and albums are displayed here. Even now unknown musicians can be found on the platform, such as the Munich rapper Square Square or the murdered American rapper Kadafi.

If you listen to a lot of underground music, you may not find all the artists or works, for example, the Defined Print of the American Rap Orchestra. If you mainly listen to less well-known music, you should definitely take a closer look at YouTube music. Overall, Amazon Music offers a wide range, and in fact will not miss anything. We especially like a variety of radio stations and playlists, which is reminiscent of the good times of mixing tapes in the past when people recorded tapes at night or on vacation. On Amazon, you will definitely find the right combination.

Radio dramas and audio books

In addition to music, Amazon Music also provides many audio books. However, you can almost find them through search without real inspiration. There are only "Reclam Audiobooks" categories on the homepage, which include classic literary works such as "Romeo and Juliet" or "Youth Without God". Overall, it is difficult to tell the size of the audiobook catalog.

In the test, most of the Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigurdardóttir disappeared, and Dan Brown or Arnaldur Indriðason books were also found on Amazon Music. Like other music services, the portfolio usually does not contain the author's latest work. These are usually provided for a fee, for example at Amazon Audible. The homepage has a "Radio Play for Young and Old People" section. This is properly prepared and includes all known radio episodes such as "TKKG", "Benjamin Blümchen", "Three ???", "Five Friends" and so on. Overall, this offer is really good, and can definitely meet the needs of radio fans.

podcast

If you are a fan of podcasts, you may be disappointed with Amazon Music. Unfortunately, there are no podcasts on the music platform. Here, you can recommend Spotify or Deezer as an alternative to Amazon Music.

radio station

You also cannot listen to classic radio stations in your area through the music service. Amazon Music explicitly suggested "radio station" in the search, but this is a playlist. The difference with existing playlists is that existing songs cannot be viewed, and titles can only be skipped. The selection is very wide, and you will find hundreds of playlists by type, subtype, decades and even artists.

Live football on Amazon Music

A special feature of Amazon Music is the transmission of live football matches, but only in the form of audio. The streaming service has its own "football live" section. The upcoming game lists the corresponding start time on the homepage, and there is also a calendar where you can view events for the next few days, weeks, and months. The football area can also be based on 1. Bundesliga, 2. The Bundesliga, DFB-Pocar, Champions League and Super Cup are filtered. It's a good thing for football fans!

Amazon Music Original

Like Deezer or Spotify, there are so-called "original" on Amazon, which means that mail order companies can only get these contents exclusively. These include live concerts, new songs in UHD quality or exclusive soundtracks such as "Inside Borussia Dortmund".

3D music

Amazon Music HD subscribers can also access so-called 360-degree playlists. A properly prepared song can provide 3D sound. Listeners should be able to focus more on their titles. However, to use it, you need a Sony-compatible headset or a speaker equipped with Sonos Dolby Atmos, for example, supporting 360-degree sound.

Music video

In addition to music, some music services also provide music videos. These include tidal or Apple music. On the other hand, Amazon Music does not use video content. If this is your decision criterion, then the alternative method above is recommended.

Upload your own song

If you find gaps in the music catalog, you can stop them for a long time by uploading your own songs. Unfortunately, Amazon has completely stopped this feature. Therefore, your own music will no longer be stored in the provider's cloud.

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Streaming quality

Except for Amazon Music HD, the audio quality of Amazon Music at all prices is up to 256 kb per second, so it is equivalent to Apple Music. On the other hand, most other music services provide a maximum bit rate of 320 kilobits per second, which is better in quality. In blind testing, many users may not hear any difference between the two quality levels. Enthusiast users with corresponding high-quality hardware should make a difference.

But, overall, the quality is good, and at least without high-end hardware, it is enough to enhance sound on the go and at home. Amazon does not provide any information about the codec used. Audio manufacturer Sonos issues an "AAC and MP3" notification on its Amazon overview page. It is not known whether to use two codecs at the same time.

Amazon Music HD is ideal for people with higher requirements. There are approximately 50 million uncompressed FLAC-quality songs. The average bit rate here is about 850 kb / s. In addition, Amazon Music HD provides millions of songs in ultra-high definition resolution. The average bit rate here is proud of 3,730 kb per second, so it is comparable to Tidal's "master" quality.

Data consumption of average long titles

If you want to use Amazon Music HD anytime, anywhere, you should download music in advance, because these songs sometimes consume a lot of data. Below, we provide you with general guidelines regarding data consumption during streaming.

• 256 kb per second: approximately 4 megabytes
• HD format: about 30-40 MB, depending on the bit rate
• Ultra HD format: about 100 megabytes

Operation and user interface

Whether it is an application or a web player, Amazon Music is easy to operate. The breakdown by category and field is very similar here. Because the player is larger overall, you can only get more points on the desktop. Since the music streaming service is now mainly used for mobile phones and tablets, we would like to introduce you to the contents of the mobile application here.

If you open the application, you will find four main navigation points in the lower area: "Home", "Find", "My Music" and "Alexa". On the homepage, Amazon bundles everything you might be interested in. Here are personal recommendations, new music, pop music, live football broadcasts, charts and more. The site is rich in content and is an ideal point of contact for users looking for new content or being inspired. Audio content (such as audiobooks and radio dramas) also appears on the homepage.

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In the search, there are some suggestions that can take you directly to the corresponding overview page. You will find radio stations, playlists, charts, newly released content and live football broadcasts. Music suggestions can also be filtered by genre. The search itself avoids typos and usually leads to correct results quickly.

Quickly explained the "My Music" section. Here, you can find recently heard or saved songs, playlists, albums and artists. Compared with other music services, a special feature is "Alexa". Here, you can start voice control through Amazon Alexa without installing a separate Alexa application. This control works as long as the application is active in the foreground. Just like Alexa's typical usage, there is no problem. For example, the following command works:

• Alexa, play funk and soul.
• Alexa, playing Lovesick of Mura Masa.
• Alexa, playing Masta Ace's new album.
• Alexa, what's the name of this song?

Like other music services, songs, albums or artist-specific "radio stations" can be activated. These are playlists that play similar music. In practice, this method is very effective. Until now, there are occasionally some singles that do not meet your own musical tastes. However, this is normal.

Extra features

Like competitors, Amazon is equipping its music service with other features to provide users with the best listening experience. We will introduce you to some other features below, but at the same time will also show you features not found on Amazon Music.

Equalizer

When listening to music, do the headphones or speakers use an equalizer? Then, unfortunately, you entered the Amazon Music website. Unfortunately, it is not possible to adjust the sound in the application or web player. If you are using an Android phone, you can switch to the equalizer application in the Play Store, which will change the sound system-wide. However, this is not possible on iOS.

lyrics

A great feature is the integration of lyrics in Amazon Music. Lyrics are available for many songs during playback. They are also synchronized to match the music so that you can even sing together.

Sleep timer

If you listen to music or voice content and go to sleep, you can use the sleep timer to stop playback after a certain period of time. This also applies to Amazon Music. In the app, you will find the sleep timer in the settings, you can choose between 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 1 hour.

Block inappropriate content

You can only use family filters to block inappropriate content on Amazon Music (such as songs with swear words). However, this feature does not apply to individual subscribers, so it is mainly aimed at children.

Offline mode

Not only can music be streamed via Amazon Music, it can also be downloaded for offline use. Using the download icon or context menu, this function can easily implement playlists, albums or single songs in the application. You can also use offline mode in the desktop application, but it does not work in the web player.

Amazon Artist Music

If you make your own music, you can also use it on Amazon Music. Amazon has its own artist website, where you can find all important information about artists-but only in English. According to data from the Dittomusic website, Amazon music artists pay $ 0.00402 per stream.

Advantages compared to other services

What are the advantages of Amazon Music? Why choose service? We also list the unique features of the music service below.

• Subscriber's exclusive content
• Valued customers free
• Discounted prices for Prime customers or Echo owners
• Live football
• Voice control via Alexa, no other applications required