AppleInsider Staff
Amazon recently initiated discussions with major music labels in an effort to kickstart a streaming service for its paying Prime members, one report says, possibly signaling the entry of yet another service into the crowded Internet radio space.
Citing sources within the music industry, re/code reports Amazon has stepped up negotiations with major labels in what appears to be a legitimate play at the music streaming market.
Amazon may be a long way from launching such a service, however, as at least one person familiar with the talks says the Internet retail giant is nowhere near a definitive deal.
As with other Amazon ventures, the company is said to be seeking low fees on merchandise, in this case songs, that represents a substantial discount when compared to pricing offered to competing services.
According to the publication, Amazon will likely mete out the music content to Prime members in much the same way as it handles videos. Currently, the company offers certain free movies to customers who pay the $79-per year Prime membership fee, which is mainly used for free two-day shipping and other perks.
If Amazon does enter the streaming music fray, it will contend with other well-developed subscription services like Spotify and Beats Music. Apple, too, is in the mix with iTunes Radio, a free-to-use service that removes ads with an iTunes Match subscription.
Unlike the usual players, however, Amazon's rumored service would be a value-added feature to Prime, not a standalone product. It is unclear how the model would play out considering the number of Prime members who are unaware of the current free video cache supplied as part of their subscription.
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The iTunes Radio ad-free model stinks. It's only ad-free if Match is enabled on the device at the time, which therefore forces you to choose between deleting all your locally stored music and listening to Radio. I don't see why this matters, they've already got my money regardless of whether I'm actually using the service at any given time.
Don't even make sense! Just transfer all your music to iTunes and sync it over wifi with iTunes Match. Once your music is downloaded to your phone is like you always had it there.
[quote name="Unbeliever2" url="/t/162212/amazon-reportedly-looking-into-music-streaming-service-for-prime-members#post_2479023"]The iTunes Radio ad-free model stinks. It's only ad-free if Match is enabled on the device at the time, which therefore forces you to choose between deleting all your locally stored music and listening to Radio.[/quote] Huh? Delete locally stored music? I can have match enabled and choose to see everything on iCloud or not. No need to delete anything. Can you elaborate?
Don't even make sense! Just transfer all your music to iTunes and sync it over wifi with iTunes Match. Once your music is downloaded to your phone is like you always had it there.
Does not work for me, because my daughters and I have different iTunes libraries, but share a pandora account. iTunes match means that everybody but one person loses their music.