After Apple Music and Deezer raised prices for their respective plans in markets including the US, and Spotify reportedly has its own plans, Amazon Music will keep its pricing unchanged for the time being.
Amazon Music VP Steve Boom shed light on his company’s pricing plans in a recent appearance decoder, after the e-commerce giant’s music-streaming platform made its full song catalog available to Prime members in shuffle mode. For reference, Amazon Music Unlimited, an ad-free subscription option for the service of the same name, is currently $8.99/month for Prime members and $9.99/month for non-members.
(A separate Amazon Music Prime does not include all of Unlimited’s features and, as the title suggests, comes with each Prime subscription. Amazon Music Unlimited, on the other hand, is available for $4.99 per month. We also offer a “Single Device Plan” that allows customers to access the service through only one Echo unit.)
Of course, Amazon Music Unlimited’s continued $9.99 price point (for non-Prime members) can be a huge advantage in the highly competitive streaming space. And during the aforementioned podcast discussion, Steve Boom (who also serves as president of the MusiCares Foundation) appeared to suggest Amazon Music would hold off on raising prices – for now.
Asked about the Apple Music price increase, Boom said, “If we do decide to raise prices, we’ll announce it to all customers at once, not on a podcast. I’m not sure they’re all listening right now.
“In fact, in this calendar year of 2022, we have increased prices on several plans. Yes, Apple has increased prices as well. We are always looking at what is the right price for our customers. If we have anything to announce, we will definitely let you know,” he continued.
The carefully worded remark appears to leave the door open to price increases, but contrasts with comments Daniel Ek provided in another interview on the subject. , immediately confirmed that price increases in 2023 are likely for his service, which reported having 195 million paying users at the time of its conclusion in September.
Elsewhere in a multi-faceted conversation, Boom is behind Amazon Music’s ongoing expansion (“We’ve been investing heavily in live streaming and merch sales”) and licensing talks with majors. We talked about a process plus the inherent logistical advantages that its parent company offers.
Also, regarding the emergence of non-fungible tokens adopted by Spotify in early 2022, Boom does not “stay up late worrying about NFTs” and does not think NFTs will “end the business”. clarified.
Nonetheless, according to Boom, Amazon Music is “considering NFTs” because of the “potentially greater opportunity to allow artists to engage more directly with their fans.”
