One month after it launched in the US, Amazon has expanded its Music Unlimited on-demand streaming service to the UK, Germany, and Austria.
Amazon Music Unlimited is already live in the UK, and is expected to launch in Germany and Austria later today.
For Prime users, the service costs £7.99 / €7.99 per month, or £79 / €79 per year. Those without an Amazon Prime subscription pay £9.99 / €9.99 monthly. There’s also a subscription for Amazon Echo owners, which costs £3.99 / €3.99 per month.
As you’d expect, there’s also a free 30-day trial for those who want to see what it’s like, but don’t want to pony up any cash.
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It makes a lot of sense that Amazon would heavily push its own music streaming service to Echo customers, rather than give Spotify a near-monopoly on the platform. And Amazon’s offering comes with an extensive range of voice controls, allowing users to search for songs based on the title, artists, lyrical content, and even the mood of the song.
So, “Alexa, play me some happy pop music” is an actual legitimate thing you can say.
From launch, Amazon Music Unlimited comes with a lengthy catalogue of over 40 million songs you can stream. It also provides the same hand-curated playlists previously found on Amazon Prime Music.
It makes sense that Amazon would take a bolder step into this market, especially as Echo’s momentum shows no sign of slowing down. I imagine that many Echo owners would welcome a streaming service that’s built with it in mind.
That being said, Echo owners are a minority, and it remains to be seen whether everyone else will be willing to move away from more mature options, like Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer.
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