On the heels of Spotify’s announcement that it is raising subscriber prices, Amazon Music will do the same. Only the price hikes are reserved for its best customers – its Amazon Prime members.
Starting Sept. 19, the base price for Amazon Music Unlimited will jump one dollar to $9.99 per month for individuals and $16.99 for the family plan. While it is rising, the price remains a dollar cheaper than what non-Prime members pay for Amazon Music. The company says the price hike will help “bring you even more content and features” to the app. Amazon Music already features more than 100 million songs in HD and a growing catalog of songs in Ultra HD and Spatial audio.
Amazon Music may be the name but spoken word content has been available for the past few years as the company has invested in podcasting. Amazon Music added podcasts to its app in September 2020 with more than 70,000 shows, quickly followed by a deal to buy the podcast studio Wondery. Then in June 2021 it made a move to monetize that effort when it struck a deal to buy the podcast advertising and hosting company Art19. Today the app features the entire catalog of shows produced by sister Wondery.
Since last November, podcasts on Amazon Music have been ad-free for Prime members other than baked-in ads. Ad-free content will also come from outside producers, including NPR, ESPN, CNN and the New York Times.
Spotify said last month it was raising its prices for U.S. streaming plans to $10.99 per month for individuals and $16.99 for family plans. It was the latest in a string of price raises for streaming companies. YouTube also hiked its price for its ad-free plan last month to $13.99. And late last year Apple Music increased the price on its individual plan by a dollar to $10.99.
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