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Amazon In Talks For Music Streaming Service: report
Amazon is reportedly readying to launch a free, ad-supported music streaming service.
Billboard's sources claim that ecommerce giant Amazon is currently in talks with major music labels to provide a free, ad-supported music streaming service. The service will be available though the company's voice-activated Echo speakers, the report claims, and will offer a limited catalog. It could become available as early as next week.
Amazon was not available for a comment.
Amazon's limited Prime Music service is part of the company's Prime subscriptions, which cost $119 a yeary. The comapny also sells Amazon Music Unlimited subscriptions separately for $9.99 a month, reducing the fee to $7.99 for Prime members and $3.99 a month for people who only listen on an Echo device.
Currently, Spotify is the only major subscription-dependent music streaming service with a free tier. While paying listeners hear particular albums or artists on demand, free users can’t control the order of the songs. Spotify boasts nearly 100 million paying customers with another 115 million on the service’s free tier.
Apple Music is not offering a free option.
Universal Music Group, Warner, and Sony — the three biggest music labels — reportedly made a combined $6.93 billion in 2018 from music streaming services alone.