Amazon Music has upped the price of its music streaming service.
The American multinational technology company who made this known in a new FAQ announced that starting from May 5th, Amazon Prime subscribers will have to pay $8.99 (£8.99) a month or $89 (£89) a year for access to Music Unlimited, up from $7.99 (£7.99) and $79 (£79) respectively.
The announcement also upped the price of the single-device plan, that allows users listen to the full library but only from a single Echo or Fire TV device, from $3.99 (£3.99) to $4.99 (£4.99) a month. For non-Prime members, the price of Amazon Music Unlimited remains the same, as it is unchanged at $9.99 (£9.99).
The price review has now thrown into the trash can the discount Prime subscribers on Amazon get when they pay for Amazon Music on top of their monthly subscription to the company, as instead of getting a $2 a month discount, they now get just $1 off compared to non-Prime subscribers.
The price surge is coming just weeks after Amazon had upped its Prime subscription prices for the first time in four years from $119 to $139 annually, or $12.99 to $14.99 monthly.
Non-prime members are not affected by this change as their subscription price stays the same.
Despite not including a paired-down version of its music streaming service with a regular Prime subscription, Amazon features a limited catalogue of just 2 million songs, as compared to 90 million with Unlimited). Also, there will be no support for lossless CD-quality, or hi-res music streams without having to pay for Unlimited.
Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, Amazon Music is currently the third-largest music streaming service, just behind Spotify and Apple Music. It holds the history of being the the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels, as well as many independents.
Midia Research reported that Apple Music had around 78.6 million subscribers as of Q2 last year, in comparison with Amazon Music who had just over 68.1 million. Spotify as at the end of last year had 180 million premium subscribers.
It remains to be seen if the increase in the subscription prices on Amazon Music will continue to increase its subscriber base.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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