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

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion
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.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames Posts: 1,904member
    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
  • Reply 2 of 16
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    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. 
  • Reply 3 of 16
    dachardachar Posts: 330member
    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. 
  • Reply 4 of 16
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    The Apple Family Plan is a great deal if you can find a way of sharing with 6 people
  • Reply 5 of 16
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    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.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    larz2112larz2112 Posts: 291member
    sog35 said:
    Apple Music should be $4.99 for individual

    $8.99 for 2 
    $11.99 for 3
    $13.99 for 4

    Current prices are way too high.
    I don't think current prices are "way too high". Apple Music is $9.99/month. Let's say you listen to music when you are working, driving, exercising at the gym, cleaning around the house, jogging, partying, etc., and on average you listen to music about an hour a day. So that's about 30 hours each month. At $9.99/month that's 33 cents per hour of listening. Taking an average song length of five minutes (it's probably actually less), that's 12 songs per hour, or less than three cents per song.  And if you listen to more than one hour of music per day it's even less than that.

    When a cup of coffee costs $3-5, do you really think it's too expensive to pay less than three cents to listen to a song?
    mwhite
  • Reply 7 of 16
    viclauyycviclauyyc Posts: 849member
    Guess I am switching to Amazon or Sportfy after this month. 

    Apple Music really sucks on keeping my own music on my iPhone. if I use the iCloud library, it will just suck all my music to the cloud. When I want to listen it, I have download my own music from cloud every single time when I want to listen. I lost so many songs from the iCloud thing. My own music library is already damaged.

    Don't Apple understand something call download limit or wifi data charge? Not everyone have unlimited internet access. Can't they imagine there are places don't have internet connection at all. I know I can download the music ahead. But I have to download every song which I actually own.

    And don't let me start with the Music Match.

  • Reply 8 of 16
    viclauyycviclauyyc Posts: 849member

    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.
    Spotify has the biggest share of the market right now. 

    It is the artist can't make money out of the business model. You will be surprised how little money they make. Not everyone is justin bieber. :) 
  • Reply 9 of 16
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    sog35 said:
    Apple Music should be $4.99 for individual

    $8.99 for 2 
    $11.99 for 3
    $13.99 for 4

    Current prices are way too high.
    Because you say so? What about paying artists and making a profit? You know nothing about the music business and its financial structure.

  • Reply 10 of 16
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member
    I'm really enjoying my Apple Music subscription. I am, of course, a little biased since I pay a little less than $2 a month for the family plan. But even if I had to pay more, I would gladly do so. It probably is the best "try before you buy" option! The radio is also a plus.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    saldogsaldog Posts: 48member
    The Echo is way better than Siri at voice recognition. Also, Hey Siri doesn't work well on the watch and when it does, it is still too slow for home automation. Echo is great and can hear me anywhere in the room. My phone may not be with me at home. It is always with me when I leave the house, but at home it is sometimes on the counter or being charged. If it is on my person, it is in my pocket. Hey Siri is not much help then and no help at all for people that have older than 6s. Echo is the device Apple should have built, or they should have at least enabled Hey Siri to work on the Mac. I still don't understand why Siri must be enabled with a click on Mac instead of just a voice command.
  • Reply 12 of 16
    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames Posts: 1,904member
    saldog said:
    The Echo is way better than Siri at voice recognition. Also, Hey Siri doesn't work well on the watch and when it does, it is still too slow for home automation. Echo is great and can hear me anywhere in the room. My phone may not be with me at home. It is always with me when I leave the house, but at home it is sometimes on the counter or being charged. If it is on my person, it is in my pocket. Hey Siri is not much help then and no help at all for people that have older than 6s.
    From what I've seen Echo is better at voice recognition but not "way better". I use my Watch every day to turn lights and my stereo on/off, it's a little slower than using my iPhone but I don't have any issues. 

    You say Echo can hear you anywhere in the room. What happens when you are down the hall or upstairs or just in a room where the door is closed? 

    Your point about needing a 6s or newer for "Hey, Siri" is certainly valid, but more and more people get there daily. I bet there are more people with a 6s or 7 than there are people with an Echo. 

    Keep in mind, my friends HAVE listened to music through Echo, but still usually have the stereo in their living room playing music. I use my Watch to turn on my stereo and then use Remote to AirPlay my music. 

    Aside from "better" voice recognition (thanks to more microphones and better power) and better sound than a phone (larger speaker and better power) I don't still don't get it. If those are the only advantages, they aren't very strong. Or, for me, not strong enough to pay for another device and go through all that setup just to maybe not have to take my phone out of my pocket. 
  • Reply 13 of 16
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    sog35 said:
    Apple Music should be $4.99 for individual

    $8.99 for 2 
    $11.99 for 3
    $13.99 for 4

    Current prices are way too high.
    Either someone is sucking up all of the profits or the entire business model is poor from top to bottom. Spotify has yet to earn a profit. Artists complain they are paid almost nothing for streaming music. It is likely that consumers are paying too little for what they are getting. If you are a heavy music listener and you listen to a lot of music that is new to you then the current prices are a really good deal. You would be paying a whole lot more if you purchased all of it on a regular download or by CD.

    This is a little old but I doubt things have changed much: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/
  • Reply 14 of 16
    lukeilukei Posts: 379member
    More Sogtastic nonsense. No one makes money at current streaming prices. Apple and Amazon do what they do for reasons of ecosystem not profit. 

    Artists make their money from live performance and merchandise. 


  • Reply 15 of 16
    larz2112larz2112 Posts: 291member
    lukei said:
    More Sogtastic nonsense. No one makes money at current streaming prices. Apple and Amazon do what they do for reasons of ecosystem not profit. 

    Artists make their money from live performance and merchandise. 


    You forgot the songwriters, who get royally screwed by the streaming business model and royalty payments of virtually nothing. And a significant percentage of new and independent artists do not make much, if anything off of touring and merch. In some cases they lose money. Larger, established artist? ...yes of course they make tons of money off of touring and merch. But for most other musicians, royalties are a vital part of their revenue stream until they (hopefully) build up a big enough fan base and "make it big". The majority of musicians are not living high on the hog, similar to most actors and athletes. The ones making millions are the "one percenters".
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