Amazon Launches Free Music Streaming Service for Prime Subscribers

Amazon continues to add value to Amazon Prime, and has now launched Amazon Prime Music, with a million-plus songs, unlimited streaming and no ads or restrictions on skips or repeat or downloads, free for Amazon Prime subscribers in the US.

On Thursday, Amazon has put up a page announcing the feature, and promises the latest music from artists like Daft Punk, The Lumineers and P!nk, with curated playlists across different genres, for different moods, which you can see here.

The Prime Music service will be available on iOS, Android and PC/Macs using Amazon's Cloud Player. There's no mention of when - if at all - this feature will be available for users in other countries.

With a relatively small catalog, Amazon's service is not seen as a major threat to companies like Spotify, Rhapsody and Beats, which offer several millions of songs. But Amazon's sheer size gives it a big advantage. The company recently announced that it had 244 million active customer accounts, and it is estimated to have more than 20 million Prime subscribers.

For Amazon, as the company gets more active in the hardware space, with the Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV and a phone rumoured to be launching soon, this move makes a lot of sense.

Amazon Prime already gives you access to Amazon Instant Video and free video content. By adding music, it becomes easier for users to consumer all their content from within the Amazon eco-system, and if since their content can be accessed on just about any platform - much like Kindle books - it becomes a better option than device specific services like iTunes Radio.