Amazon To Launch A $5 Music Service For Echo Users Soon, Spotify Competitor Early Next Year

Amazon Inc. is expected to launch its own music streaming service next year in order to compete with Spotify and Apple Music. Also, a new report has surfaced claiming that Amazon will first be launching a music service exclusive for its Echo speakers in the next few weeks.

The on-demand music service will allow Echo users to access Amazon’s music library for $5 a month, according to The Verge. Since the upcoming service will only be available through the Echo speakers, music playback will only be accessible through Alexa, Amazon’s voice activated assistant.

Amazon’s other music streaming service that’s not tethered to its Echo speakers will launch in early 2017. Since that is intended to be a competitor to Apple Music and Spotify, its monthly subscription is a bit more expensive at $10. An added perk of opting in to the full-fledged music streaming service is that it can work on any device, according to Engadget.

The rumored name for Amazon’s premium $10 music streaming service is Amazon Music Unlimited, according to AFTVnews. The name was discovered within the internal code of the Amazon Music app for the Fire TV. A banner ad as well as an icon image for Amazon Music Unlimited was also discovered by AFTVnews.

The Amazon Music app’s code includes translations for Germany and Japan, which suggests that the Music Unlimited service will launch globally and not just in the United States. The service is also expected to not be bundled with the $99 a year Amazon Prime subscription which includes Prime Music.

Amazon may have already found success with its video streaming service, and has even been making its own original content. But when it comes to its music services, it’s unable to make much of a significance in the market which is currently being dominated by Spotify and Apple Music.