If a new streaming service from Amazon sounds like music to your ears, you’re in luck – the Bellevue, Washington-based company might be on the verge of releasing a Spotify competitor.
According to a report from Reuters, who cited two Amazon insiders, the company is eager to break into the music streaming space to compete with Apple Music, Google Play Music and Spotify.
The sources say that it will be a standalone service and slightly different than the existing Amazon Prime Music service subscribers have access to today.
The play here, it seems like, is to create a new service that will make the Amazon Echo, Amazon Tap and Amazon Dot speakers more appealing.
Sources say that the service will cost $9.99 (around £3.99/AU$14.99) and could launch as early as this fall.
The idea of a recurring monthly subscription has been one that Amazon has adopted full bore – the company recently uncoupled Amazon Prime Instant Video streaming service from the annual subscription to the tune of $10.99 per month – therefore, it’s not a huge stretch to imagine the company has the same plan for Amazon Prime Music.
At this point, however, it’s not totally clear what the service would be called or, more importantly, what exactly will happen to Amazon Prime Music. Clearly both services can’t exist simultaneously, which means either current users will have to fork over an extra $11 per month for streaming music privileges or get grandfathered into this new plan.
I’m hoping for the latter.
Source: techradar.com