Amazon Music Quietly Increases Prices—But Undercuts Spotify

Photo Credit: Amazon Music

Amazon announces some pricing changes for its Amazon Music Unlimited plans, but still manages to undercut market leader Spotify.

Amazon has announced an adjustment to the pricing of its Amazon Music Unlimited plans, effective on subscribers’ first billing date on or after March 5 in North America, and March 10 in the UK.

The annual cost of the service will increase from $199 to $219 for the family plan, which supports up to six individual accounts under one subscription. Single plans, which are currently $12.99 a month, or $11.99 a month with a Prime membership, will also see a price increase.

According to Amazon, the price increases are necessary to sustain ongoing investments to expand content libraries as well as to introduce new features to the platform. Currently, Amazon Music boasts a catalog of over 100 million songs available in high-quality audio formats, including lossless and spatial. It also offers ad-free podcasts and integrated access to audiobooks through its Audible partnership.

It’s the latest adjustment to prices across the streaming industry, and it’s certainly not a surprising one, although it’s Amazon Music’s second price hike within 12 months. Amazon’s previous price increase saw the Family plan’s annual rate going up last year; the latest brings the tier on par with its competitors while maintaining its place as a solid bundled option for a larger household.

Amazon Music is the fourth largest music streaming service worldwide, and the third excluding the China-exclusive Tencent Music. Amazon holds approximately 11% market share of global subscriber volume, but it consistently trails behind market leader Spotify.

While Amazon’s latest price hike actually puts it neck and neck with Spotify in terms of cost, the Prime member discount enables it to squeeze by at $1 less. Amazon has maintained its Prime member discount as a major selling point; meanwhile, Spotify continues testing higher-priced subscription tiers in more regions, including India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.