Amazon wants to create a $5 per month music service just for Echo owners

Amazon Echo (image 001)

Owners of the Echo wireless speaker with built-in Alexa assistant may soon be treated to Amazon’s new music-subscription service that charges half as much as competing offerings from Spotify, Apple, Google and others. The bargain-priced music service should cost between $4 and $5 per month, Re/Code reports, and would only work on Echo hardware.

The Echo-bound service could launch in September, provided Amazon manages to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers. “One sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month,” reads the article.

Amazon’s discount service would work like Spotify or Apple Music (unlimited, ad-free music on demand), with the exception of being constrained to Amazon’s Echo player (it would not even work on Amazon’s own phones and tablets).

A million Echo speaker units sold last year, with Amazon hoping to move three million units this year and ten million in 2017.

In addition to that service, work reportedly continues on Amazon’s other service akin to Spotify and Apple Music that would provide unlimited music streaming no matter the device, offline playback and other standard features in exchange for $10 per month.

These two allegedly upcoming service should not be confused with Amazon Music, which offers a limited catalog of music for free but only to Prime subscribers.

Pandora, too, is said to be readying two new paid subscription tiers ($5/$10 per month) that would let music lovers listen to any song available on the service, in any order. Apple Music is priced at $10 per month, or $14.99 per month for a family of six.

Source: Re/Code