Image Credit: Beatrising

Amazon has expanded its music offering to Prime subscribers, and now offers ad-free podcast listening.

Amazon has announced that Prime subscribers will now have access to a full music catalog of 100 million songs in addition to ad-free listening on most podcasts on the platform.

Before now, Prime subscribers only had access to just 2 million songs. Could this move lure Spotify and Apple Music users away from these services?

Amazon Prime vs Spotify & Apple Music

Paying Spotify users still have to listen to advertisements that interrupt the conversation, and they recently began making audiobooks available on its platform to its US audience. Around the same time, Apple Music boasted it “has over 100 million songs, more than any other platform”.

Consequently, we can only assume that Amazon’s offer of an additional 98 million songs and ad-free podcasts is a move aimed directly at its two biggest competitors. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Audible is still the leading provider of audiobooks.

Now Amazon seems to be trying to carve more pie for itself by taking advantage of Spotify’s podcast ads and showing Apple Music their 100 million songs catalog claim was wrong.

The online retail giant may well be hoping that by offering ad-free podcasts and the ginormous music catalog could make them the market leader on all three fronts.

In fact, Amazon recognized that its limited music catalog no longer held much sway as it once did.

But Amazon’s broader music service (Amazon Music Unlimited) is staying live too. Users can still access all Amazon Music songs on-demand in HD and UHD quality on any device for $8.99/month or $89/year.

Additionally, the Amazon Music app is getting a makeover and a new Podcasts Preview feature. Once live, Prime users can listen to a short clip of podcast episodes before they decide to play them.

It wasn’t so long ago that Amazon made the move to raise the annual price of its Prime free shipping program from $119 to $139, and many felt that Prime membership was becoming too expensive.

Will a large music catalog and ad-free podcasts convince consumers that an Amazon Prime subscription is worth the cost?

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