Amazon to launch streaming music service on Prime – Spotify thought to be looking nervously over its shoulder

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Amazon is said to be working on a streaming music service to add to its portfolio of services under the “Prime” brand – a move which is sure to make rivals nervous.

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According to Buzzfeed the music service will launch for Prime subscribers in either June or July – joining the recently beefed up Prime line-up free one-day delivery, free Kindle books and free on-demand video from Amazon Instant Video.

The move will no-doubt frighten existing music streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and Apple’s newly acquired Beats Music. Amazon, after all, is no plucky start-up: Prime already apparently has 20 million users who are paying £79/year for the services… which when added together are arguably more affordable than individual rival services, like Spotify and Netflix.

There is one difference though: Apparently Amazon’s service will limit access to new music – only songs older than six months will be playable on the new service – presumably because the company thinks that it can still do good business selling individual MP3s on new stuff.

i called it.jpgWe’ll let you know when we know something concrete. In the meantime, I’m going to do a little dance and point out how I called it back in February.

James O’Malley
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