Amazon Music Unlimited was launched in the U.S. last year. After this, the service was rolled out to a few more markets like the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Japan. On Friday, the online retailer announced the biggest expansion of its paid music streaming service, making it available in 28 new countries.
Echo also coming to these new countries
Amazon Music Unlimited is coming to new markets across Europe and Latin America, including Peru, Poland, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, and Uruguay. Australia is not on the list, but it could appear sometime next year. Amazon Prime was only recently launched in Australia.
“Music is such an incredible global connector, and with Amazon Music Unlimited we’ve been able to give listeners access to an extensive catalog with the added experience of using their own voice to hear music in so many ways with Alexa,” said Amazon Music VP, Steve Boom, in a press release.
Along with expanding the Amazon Music Unlimited, the company also revealed that the Echo would also begin shipping to these countries, “enabling customers who purchase devices at www.amazon.com/echo, the ability to experience Amazon Music Unlimited with the power and simplicity of natural voice controls in English, powered by Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service.”
Amazon Music Unlimited – what it offers?
Amazon Music Unlimited gives you access to 40 million songs, new worldwide playlists, personalized playlists and stations, new releases, and unlimited ad-free streaming. Further, you can access the service on the web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Echo devices, and FireTV. Display languages include French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, English, and German on the Amazon Music Web Player, and Android and iOS app.
The service comes with three unlimited subscription monthly plans. First, the Echo Plan that lets you listen to unlimited music on one Echo, then there is the Individual Plan, which supports several devices. There is also a Family plan for up to six household members. As of now, Amazon has not shared the country-specific pricing, but in the U.S., the plans cost $3.99, $9.99, and $14.99, respectively. The service came with one more plan when it was first launched in the U.S. – $8 for access on any compatible device with a Prime subscription.
Amazon Music Unlimited can be seen as an expansion of Amazon’s existing Prime Music service, which allows Prime users to enjoy selected tracks. Amazon Prime Music is still available in some of the markets, where Amazon Music Unlimited is still absent, like Canada, notes VentureBeat. However, the main aim of the Amazon Music Unlimited is to benefit from the growing paid music segment, where Apple and Spotify are the main players.
As of July, Spotify had over 60 million paying users, while Apple Music had about 27 million subscribers. Also, there are reports that YouTube is planning to come up with a new music subscription service in March. The Google-owned company has reportedly inked a deal with Warner Music Group, and is in talks with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, according to Bloomberg.
At 10:59 a.m. EST, Amazon shares were up 0.70% at $1,167.89.
