Amazon's Music Unlimited upgrades with monthly & annual Family plans

Amazon on Wednesday launched two Family plans for subscribers to Music Unlimited, its recently-launched competitor to on-demand services like Spotify and Apple Music.

The standard Family plan costs $14.99 per month for both Prime and non-Prime customers, and lets up to six people share the service, each with their own separate recommendations. Prime members alone have access to an annual option costing $149, a little over $30 cheaper than subscribing per month.

When Music Unlimited first launched in October, the service only had its four individual plans: $9.99 per month for the general public, $7.99 per month/$79 per year for Prime customers, or just $3.99 per month for owners of an Echo, Tap, or Echo Dot, though in that case the service will only work on one speaker.

All of Amazon's plans come with a free 30-day trial period. Apple by contrast offers a 90-day window, while Spotify is completely free to use, though people have to upgrade to Premium to remove ads and get other features like offline caching.

Amazon's monthly Family plan is essentially identical to those from Apple and Spotify. The main draw may therefore be with Prime customers, or people who want to take advantage of integration with the Alexa voice assistant on Echo and Fire devices. Alexa can, however, play music from services like Spotify, Pandora, and TuneIn.

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16 Comments

ihatescreennames

said about 7 years ago

I don't really understand the draw of the Echo. Some friends of mine got one a few months ago and anytime I'm at their house they show me something "new" with it. First time it was tomorrow's weather. The next time I had checked the previous night's Patriots score using Siri and then they did it with the Echo. Funny thing was next they asked it to play a playlist of children's songs one of them had made (she did it for my daughter) and instead it played heavy metal. She asked again and it played something else, still not the playlist she wanted. Then they both tried and eventually gave up.

Anyway, that's why I guess I'm missing the point. Anything they do they could also do with their iPhones except they don't have to be in their kitchen (where they keep it). I understand you can use it to order stuff from Amazon but they don't, at least not yet. Other than that, what is the point?

And just for clarity, she has an iPhone 6, he has a 5s and she she also has a Apple Watch Sport. Most of what they use the Echo for they can use those devices for and they're always with them.

cali

said about 7 years ago

ihatescreennames said:

I don't really understand the draw of the Echo. Some friends of mine got one a few months ago and anytime I'm at their house they show me something "new" with it. First time it was tomorrow's weather. The next time I had checked the previous night's Patriots score using Siri and then they did it with the Echo. Funny thing was next they asked it to play a playlist of children's songs one of them had made (she did it for my daughter) and instead it played heavy metal. She asked again and it played something else, still not the playlist she wanted. Then they both tried and eventually gave up.

Anyway, that's why I guess I'm missing the point. Anything they do they could also do with their iPhones except they don't have to be in their kitchen (where they keep it). I understand you can use it to order stuff from Amazon but they don't, at least not yet. Other than that, what is the point?

And just for clarity, she has an iPhone 6, he has a 5s and she she also has a Apple Watch Sport. Most of what they use the Echo for they can use those devices for and they're always with them.

I don't get it either. I don't get people who say Apple needs to make one also. Apple is known for leading not following and this doesn't make sense when Apple owns iOS and Siri.

dachar

said about 7 years ago

In the Uk Amazon's standard price is £9.99 a month but it drops to £7.99 a month or £79 a year for Amazon Prime members.

paxman

said about 7 years ago

The Apple Family Plan is a great deal if you can find a way of sharing with 6 people

SpamSandwich

said about 7 years ago

With Apple and Amazon both competing aggressively in this space, I think Spotify, Pandora, etc. will be squeezed out and go under. There's no way to make a profitable subscription music service except as an add on service to other, more profitable products.