Amazon Prime expands music and podcast benefits for members

Amazon has expanded its music and podcast options for Prime members, who will now have access to a larger selection of songs and podcasts at no additional cost.

The move comes after Apple, which has 88 million users, recently increased its prices for Apple Music and Apple TV+ for the first time from $9.99 a month to $10.99 a month, making it more expensive than monthly subscriptions to Spotify or Prime.

Previously Amazon’s full range of music offerings was only available on Amazon Music Unlimited, which cost $8.99 (£8.99) a month.

Prime members can now listen to 100 million songs ad-free, an increase from two million songs previously. They can also access more podcasts without ads, including Amazon exclusives, along with podcasts from the Wondery catalogue, Acast’s portfolio, as well as CNN, ESPN, NPR, and The New York Times.

According to data from Earthweb, Amazon Music has more than 68 million subscribers globally, making up 10% of the total music streaming market.

Most of these subscribers come from the US (48.3 million). The platform has experienced double-digit growth each year since 2019 when it had 32 million global subscribers, the same year that Amazon Music was first offered as a bundled service with Amazon Prime.

In comparison, Spotify now has 456 million monthly active users and 195 million premium subscribers according to its latest quarterly results.

Editor’s note: this story has been updated since publishing to include Acast in the list of podcasts included in the expanded Amazon Prime membership.