Amazon adds free tier to its music streaming service in Canada

If yous don't take Prime or Music Unlimited, Amazon has you covered

Amazon is revamping how Amazon Music works in Canada and then people with Alexa enabled smart speakers can listen to music without having to pay anything.

That ways if you don't take an Amazon Prime business relationship or an Amazon Music account, yous can still play music from Amazon. Even so, there are some limitations, much similar how Spotify'due south costless version works.

Earlier I get into the news, I want to explicate Amazon's music app system. Right now, the visitor'southward music app is called Amazon Music and it has two tiers: regular 'Amazon Music' and 'Amazon Music Unlimited.' Prime subscribers get access to Amazon Music for complimentary, but it's express to effectually a million songs. For example, most albums I looked at on it only had between 1 and four songs instead of their full tracklists.

Amazon Music Unlimited costs Prime subscribers $7.99 per month and non-Prime members $9.99. However, it gives y'all access to millions of songs, much like the paid versions of Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.

Now in Canada, Amazon seems to have added another gratis tier below the regular Amazon Prime version of the Music service subscription. This level is for people without Prime or a Music Unlimited subscription, and information technology allows them to listen to ad-supported playlists and vocal-based stations for complimentary. This means you won't get to choose the songs you lot heed to, but if you're fine but throwing on an Amazon-assembled classic rock playlist, for example, this service is for y'all.

This should go far easier for people to unwrap Alexa smart speakers and immediately get them to first playing some music. Specifically, music from an Amazon service that might entice people to either sign up for the full Music Unlimited experience or Prime. Nonetheless, you can also admission the gratuitous music through the Amazon Music app or website.

Sonos recently pulled a like move by adding a radio-type streaming service to its products to brand music playback after setup a cakewalk. Notwithstanding, this Amazon move is smart for the company and benefits Canadians that don't have a music subscription and then it'southward a pretty lovely win-win.

Users could even link both the free versions of Amazon and Spotify's music services to the same Alexa account to become a wider variance in free tunes.