Spotify and Apple Music, the current overlords of the music subsciption industry are in for a rude shock from Amazon, if a recent report on Recode proves to be correct. The company is working on a standard music subscription service that would cost $10 per month but in addition to that it is also going to offer the service for half the price exclusively for Amazon Echo hardware.
The report on Recode states, "Industry sources say Amazon would like to launch both services in September, but has yet to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers. One sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month.
An Amazon rep declined to comment.
The $10-a-month service would replicate features that used to be hard to find, but are now common: Unlimited, ad-free music you can play on any device you want and also download for offline playback.The lower-priced service would represent a novel approach. Other services have tried, without success, to offer subscriptions in the $5 range. But those have usually been variants of web radio services, which don't let users play any song they want, whenever they want."
The report went on to add, "Amazon's discount service would be different, industry sources say, because it would work like Spotify or Apple Music - unlimited, ad-free music on demand - but it would be constrained toAmazon's Echo player, and wouldn't work on phones. That runs counter to conventional wisdom in the music business, which believes that most people value the ability to take their music with them and play it whenever they want.
The overwhelming majority of Spotify subscribers sign up on phones. And when Apple Music launched last year it focused all of its attention on iPhone users, and eventually on Android phone owners as well. Amazon launched the Echo - an internet-connected speaker powered by Alexa, the company's AI software - last year, and reportedly sold a million units. It hopes to sell three million this year and 10 million in 2017, The Information reports.
Amazon already offers an Amazon Music service as a free offering for Amazon Prime subscribers, but that service only has a limited catalog of music." Interesting times for the consumer, for sure.
