Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Amazon’s free Spotify competitor is here. Just ask Alexa

By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Alexa lovers and Echo device owners have yet another feature to get excited about today, as Amazon has officially launched the rumored ad-based music streaming service we first caught wind of a few days ago.

The new streaming service allows owners of Echo devices to choose from millions of the most popular tracks on the internet, with Amazon reportedly signing deals with major labels to allow it to access to 2 million of their top tunes — reportedly the same catalog available to those who are part of its Prime Music service. Songs can be requested based on genre, album, or playlist, with Alexa quickly pulling up the music for playback, with a few ads in between.

Recommended Videos

It makes sense that the company would look to add a free, ad-based tier to its paid Amazon Music Unlimited service, given that Echo devices used to pull up requested tracks from Spotify or Pandora, essentially advertising for those independent platforms. Now, Amazon has a direct funnel to encourage Echo owners to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, without having to send listeners to another ad-supported service first.

Amazon Music Unlimited does offer a pretty significant upside when compared to this new free service, in that it boasts a catalog of 50 million songs, compared to the free services 2 million. That paltry number of songs on the free side also pales in comparison to what’s offered by Spotify’s free tier, which offers unhindered access to every song on the paid version of the Swedish music streaming service, but with often lengthy ads in between.

The news of Amazon’s free music streaming service comes at a busy time for the streaming side of the massive internet retailer, with Amazon and Google also announcing that the cold war that kept YouTube off of Amazon’s Fire TV devices — and Amazon Prime Video off of Google’s Chromecast — has thawed.

Even though the new service doesn’t offer the same number of tunes as Spotify’s free tier, it is nice to see Amazon designing its own free music service in-house, as it should be even better integrated into Echo devices. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the new service, you can still turn to Spotify, Pandora, or any of the myriad of other streaming services supported on Echo devices.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Parker Hall
Parker Hall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…
Spotify’s new AI Playlist feature uses text prompts to curate playlists
Spotify AI Playlist logo.

Spotify already has one of the best music discovery and playlist creation UIs in the biz, so where does the world's biggest music streaming service have left to go? Why, AI text prompts, of course. That's right, Spotify has announced that it is beta testing a new AI Playlist feature that will allow users to use text descriptions to curate playlists.

Available to Spotify Premium users in Australia and the U.K (for now) on Android and iOS devices, the AI Playlist feature can be found in the app's "Your Library" section, where you'll be able to tap the "+" icon to find the new AI Playlist (beta) menu. Here, you can select one of the premade suggested prompts or you can get creative and type in your own.

Read more
Spotify adds music videos for Premium users in a handful of countries
A promo image for music videos on Spotify.

Spotify today announced that it's bringing music videos (ask your parents, kids) to the streaming music service. With some caveats, however.

First is that this is somehow all in "beta," though it's not exactly clear what that means. It's not like music videos are new. Or streaming video is new. It could be that the catalog of music videos is said to be "limited," so maybe Spotify is just testing the waters before it spends more money on more music videos. But Spotify says you'll be able to watch vids from artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, among others. Spotify does say "In this beta launch, we’ll continue to innovate and iterate based on feedback from both users and artists."

Read more
Apple Music just got a cool feature you won’t find on Spotify
Apple Music Replay screenshots via Apple.

The Apple Music Replay feature gives you a rundown of which songs and albums you've listened to on the service every year. But now, it's getting a makeover that will make it more handy. Rundowns are being offered every month, allowing you to see your favorite tunes during the past 30-plus days — as well as how often you've listened to those titles.

The new monthly Apple Music Replay feature is only available through the web on the Apple Music Replay website, which is unfortunate, but unsurprising. The annual Apple Music Replay launches every December and is also a web-only feature.

Read more