The news are two: the first is that the catalog of music streaming on Amazon reaches 100 million songs, thus reaching Apple and Spotify, the second is that to listen to them you will not pay anything. As long as you are subscribed to Amazon Prime and have a lot of patience.
What changes
Until yesterday Amazon Music Prime, the version of Amazon Music included in the Prime subscription, allowed access to a reduced selection of songs, about 2 million. Now the limit falls, and Prime members have the same catalog available to those who pay for Amazon Music Unlimited, the premium subscription from 9.99 euros per month or 99.99 per year. They can also access a catalog of the most popular podcasts without advertising, including the successful programs of the Italian podcast network, Vois: all without paying a single euro more (on the other hand, the subscription to the Prime service has increased recently) .
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Three floors
So why pay for the Amazon Music Unlimited subscription? The reasons are different: in the meantime, the quality of the files streamed, which is better (equal to or higher than that of the old CDs), then the availability of spatial audio, therefore the possibility of buying a family subscription and sharing it among several people , up to six. For the rest, the download of songs, playlists, podcasts is also possible on Amazon Music Prime for offline listening.
On Music Unlimited and Music Prime there is no advertising between one song and another, while instead there is in the other Amazon streaming plan, Music Free, which does not require Prime membership, allows you to listen to music by default album, artist or playlist. Again, no HD and Ultra HD, no spatial audio. And you can only use it on one device at a time.
“We continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and offer even more entertainment to Prime members, in addition to the benefits and value they already enjoy,” says Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music. just an enormously expanded catalog of songs, but also a selection of the most popular podcasts without advertising everywhere, with no additional costs for their subscription. “
Chance and patience
But the devil is in the details, and this time, finding it isn’t difficult: Music Prime and Music Free they do not allow you to choose single songs, but only to listen to songs according to the sequence decided by the algorithm. Which on the one hand has an easy game in finding similar songs, in terms of atmosphere or sound, compared to those we like, but on the other hand it destroys the very idea of an album. Spotify had tried it, introducing random playback by default, and ending up in Adele’s ire. Amazon Prime Music goes even further, and surreptitiously inserts other songs, so, for example, trying to listen The Master’s voice di Battiato, in our case it starts instead Of plow and arena by Niccolò Fabi. Beautiful and inspired song, which however distances us and does not bring us close to what we were looking for. You can’t quickly scroll to the end, just jump to the next one. This time it’s Ron, Cats. Segue Peppino, by Venditti and De Gregori. Let’s try to jump: Marina Rei & Carmen Consoli, Francesco Bianconi, Daniele Silvestri. The limit for skips is five fees; 18 minutes have passed, but of Summer on A Solitary Beach there is still no trace, and indeed, as if it were a spite, among the songs chosen by the algorithm there is none by Battiato.
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