While there are a lot of music streaming services now available in the market, Spotify seems to still be the word of mouth when it comes to listening to music online, on-demand. But sources are saying that Amazon is looking at taking over that spot by expanding their digital empire to include the subscription music model that seems to be the way that people are choosing to listen to their favorite artists and albums right now.
Several sources have said that there have been several meetings already to actually put things in motion to create this new subscription service that will rival that of not just Spotify but Pandora, Apple Music, and other smaller players that have switched to this digital distribution model. Amazon has already claimed to have conquered the book, TV, and movies industry in terms of distribution. While they say they are the biggest seller of physical music in the US and the second best in digital music, there has been an acknowledged decline, industry-wide in terms of digital downloads.
The $99 a year Amazon Prime shopping service already offers 1 million songs in its database to subscribers. But what they’re looking at now is a stand-alone music streaming service which will have a separate monthly fee. Based on the industry rate, this will probably be at $9.99 per month to be competitive with the others that offer practically the same rate. Although if they do want an edge, they should probably offer something cheaper.
Actually, they will reportedly do it at $3-$4 a month, but that is if you also buy their latest speaker called Echo, which responds to voice commands and acts like your personal digital assistant as well. This has actually been in the market for some time now, but they are pushing it big time by releasing their first ever Super Bowl commercial which will star Alec Baldwin and will reported cost them $5 million.
VIA: NY Post
