Music comes to Amazon Prime

Nicole Kobie June 12, 2014

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Amazon is set to unveil its streaming-music service, dubbed Prime.

Amazon has long been rumoured to be working on its own Spotify rival, and although the Prime Music service hasn’t been officially announced, Amazon has a promotional page letting users sign up.

The service will be free to Amazon Prime subscribers, and not feature ads. That service started as a set-price shipping fee, but has expanded to include Kindle books and movies and TV. However, prices have also increased, and the service now costs £79 a year.

If you’re not subscribing to Amazon Prime, you’ll still be able to pay to use the music service, and there’s a 30-day free trial. Prices weren’t immediately available. An Amazon spokesperson in the UK said: “Prime Music is not available outside the US at this time and we’re not able to speculate on future plans.”

A report in The New York Times suggests Amazon will unveil the service later today.

That report suggests Prime Music won’t include many new releases, or any tracks from Universal Music – the world’s largest label. Amazon says it has more than one million songs; Spotify claims more than 20 million.

Previous reports have also suggested Amazon could limit the number of times a track is played, pointing users to pay to download it if they want to listen again.

While that may discourage people from paying to use Prime Music, Amazon recently unveiled it had more than 20 million subscribers, giving it a good base for negotiations with labels.

Amazon is also expected to be announcing a 3D phone next week.

Update: Amazon has officially confirmed Prime Music. It added that the service will include offline listening, and suggested there will be no way to receive the service other than by subscribing to Prime.