Amazon’s new on-demand, streaming music service, Amazon Music Unlimited, has taken its first steps abroad after launching last month in the U.S. to go head to head with Apple Music, Spotify, Google and the rest. The service — which offers some 40 million songs on tap — is now live in the UK and will also go live in Germany and Austria.
A spokesperson tells me. Prime members pay £7.99 per month or £79 per year; while non-Prime members pay £9.99 per month. Those buying the service to use only on Amazon’s Echo home speaker/interactive voice hub are charged a discounted £3.99/month.
Amazon is not revealing take-up numbers for the US service to date except for giving a predictably upbeat spin on it: “We’ve been thrilled with customer reaction to the launch of Amazon Music Unlimited in the U.S. last month and we’re excited to quickly bring the service to customers in the UK,” said Steve Boom, VP Amazon Music, in a statement.
As with the U.S. version of the service, Amazon Music Unlimited does actually have a limit of sorts: you have to be a member of Amazon’s loyalty program, Prime, to get a discount for it, adding it to the list of sweeteners that the e-commerce giant offers to users in exchange for a monthly payment and free shipping. Other perks include video streaming and food delivery. Consumers in the UK pay £5.99 per month or £79 per year in the UK for Prime membership.
While a lot of Echo owners who are already subscribers to Spotify or Pandora might have added a skill to use those services over the Amazon device, Amazon has made its own music service much more tightly integrated.
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