Amazon Music has raised the prices for its music streaming service in the US, the UK and Canada.
This marks the service’s first price adjustment for Amazon Music Unlimited — Amazon’s paid music streaming service — since August 2023.
In the US, individual non-Prime members will now pay $11.99 monthly, up from $10.99, while Prime members will see their monthly rate rise to $10.99 from $9.99.
Family plan subscribers face a larger increase, with monthly rates growing to $19.99 from $16.99, and annual subscriptions increasing to $199 from $169, according to Amazon Music’s updated FAQ page.
The new pricing structure puts Amazon Music Unlimited’s non-Prime rates in line with major competitor Spotify, which raised the price of its Premium subscription in the US to $11.99 in June 2024.
However, Amazon maintains a competitive edge by offering Prime members a $1 monthly discount on individual plans.
Other major streaming services currently charge varying rates. YouTube Music offers individual plans at $10.99 monthly, with family plans at $16.99. Apple Music and Tidal maintain similar pricing structures, charging $10.99 for individual subscriptions and $16.99 for family plans.
According to research firm MIDiA, Amazon Music is the fourth largest music streamer globally, or third if excluding China-only Tencent Music. Amazon has around 11% market share of global subscriber volume, per MIDiA’s report.
Amazon’s streaming service has undergone several price adjustments in recent years. The company began increasing rates in May 2022 when it raised Prime member fees to $8.99. This was followed by increases for non-Prime members to $10.99 in January 2023 and another adjustment for Prime members to $9.99 in August 2023.
Amazon continues to offer multiple tiers of music streaming services. Besides the premium Unlimited service, users can access Amazon Music Free, an ad-supported option, and Amazon Music Prime, included with Prime memberships, offering podcast and shuffle music listening.
“Amazon Music Unlimited offers 100 million songs in lossless HD quality, millions of tracks in Ultra HD, and thousands of expert-programmed playlists and stations,” Amazon Music says on its FAQ page.
The price rise comes just over a month after Universal Music Group and Amazon Music renewed their worldwide licensing deal.
According to a press release about UMG’s Amazon agreement, the deal encompasses an “expanded global relationship that will enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection“.
The PR claimed that the deal will ensure that “UMG’s artists achieve their commercial potential through [Amazon Music’s] continued product enhancements and exclusive content that elevate authentic engagement between artists and fans“.
The Amazon price adjustments reflect a broader trend in the streaming sector, where major providers have rolled out similar increases to keep up with rising inflation and to expand their offerings.
Video streaming giant Netflix recently increased its subscription prices in the US for the first time in nearly a year-and-a-half. The cost of Netflix’s ad-free Standard plan, which allows for two simultaneous HD streams, has been raised by $2.50 per month, to $17.99 from $15.49. The Premium tier, meanwhile, now costs $24.99, up $2 from $22.99.
Earlier this month, video on-demand streaming service Discovery+, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, also raised prices for both its ad-free and ad-supported tiers by $1 to $5.99 and $9.99 a month, respectively.
