Amazon to Launch Paid Streaming Music Service This Summer

Amazon is gearing up to take on Spotify and Apple Music with its own streaming music service, according to Reuters. To be priced at the industry standard $9.99/month, this unnamed service will feature an expansive music catalog, allowing Amazon to compete with Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify.

But soon Amazon may launch a different streaming music option with a much better selection of songs. But the idea is – with this new service – people might find Amazon’s Echo speaker more appealing. Amazon, which already offers a music service to Prime subscribers, is apparently still inking deals with labels. Surely, Prime Music users were simply hoping that their service would be improved over time.

Anyway, Reuters suggests that Amazon wants to be a one-stop-shop for all your digital media, and the existing Prime Music service doesn’t really cut it.

Steve Boom, Amazon’s vice president of digital music, was apparently helming plans for the all-new service. Amazon will also presumably continue to offer its limited free offering of video and music to Prime shipping subscribers like it did following the launch of the standalone video service. By launching a standalone streaming service that not only works with Echo but also has a richer catalogue, Amazon might be able to grow the Echo’s customer base and increase interactions with the speaker. Instead, it would seem that Amazon is approaching this service with the bigger picture in mind. In April, Amazon announced that it would begin offering an $8.99 monthly subscription to just Prime Video, a move aimed directly at competitors like Netflix and Hulu.