In the world of music streaming, Amazon Music is a relative underdog. This is despite being attached to the e-commerce giant and having a groundbreaking history as Amazon MP3 – the first service to stream the MP3 format online way back in 2007. After a rebrand in 2014, the platform started to slowly chip audiences away from competitors at Spotify and YouTube Music. Now, they have burst onto the scene with one of the lengthiest free trials in the industry.
Amazon’s Free Trials
If you’ve used Amazon services before, then you’re no stranger to their free trials. The Amazon Prime service prides itself on generous, repeating free trial offers for new and loyal customers alike. It’s an age-old marketing tactic that has found a new life in the digital age, especially for services that offer streamed content. It’s also popular in other industries like iGaming, where gambling experiences are provided over the Internet. On a digital casino website, this is done by offering free spins for newcomers so they can try out the service and decide to stick around if they like it. Amazon and many other online businesses do the same, hoping the benefits of Prime will keep you coming back for more.
The strength of Prime is that it became a package deal. Amazon leveraged its unique and strange position as a bookseller turned retail giant turned video streamer to create one of the biggest bundle offers in the industry. As a result, a Prime free trial gets you faster delivery, access to thousands of e-books, and access to exclusive Prime Video shows. That also includes the ad-free experience for Amazon Music and, in the past, a special discount if upgrading to Amazon Music Unlimited. Unlimited offers better audio quality, offline listening functions, and unlimited song skips.
Amazon isn’t getting smaller anytime soon, now that they have their own space program. There’s no telling which industries Amazon might try to tackle next, and what other services might get added to the Prime membership as a result. In the meantime, it seems their focus is on growing their flagging music streaming service.
Amazon’s New Music Unlimited Deal
To garner interest in its proprietary music streamer, Amazon has unveiled its longest free trial in the company’s history. Members of Amazon Prime can now access five months of free Music Unlimited throughout July. That month is no accident, it’s the month surrounding Prime Day from the 16th to the 17th. It has also been ten years since Amazon thought up its very own corporate holiday filled with deals and even more free offers, so they clearly felt the need to do something big.
While the deal is sweeter for Prime members, non-Prime users can still claim a diminished three months of music, totally free. Your mileage with Amazon’s music platform will vary depending on how many other Amazon products you own. For example, if you’re running an Echo Hub in your main room, then you might have more reasons to choose Amazon Music over another for the sake of compatibility.
This move by Amazon comes just after Spotify rearranged pricing for its plans. In a bid to expand its content, Spotify brought audiobooks into the fold in 2023. Now they have shuffled their subscription tiers to provide more options to customers. Before, the premium plan cost a little more and included audiobook privileges. Now, there’s an even cheaper premium option for those who want ad-free music but don’t care much about reading books. Instead of paying for a service they don’t use, Spotify has provided the option to pay just for the musical features.
For both music streamers, time will tell if these bold strategies will pay off. Competition in video streaming is fierce and, if music streaming is going to follow that trend, then you can guarantee there will be even more unique deals as Amazon tries to dethrone Spotify and keep other competitors like YouTube Music at bay.
