MUSIC STREAMING REVIEW: Amazon Music Unlimited
Prime Member, Music Unlimited Is the Streaming App Made Just for You
Strong music library and Alexa integration
Verdict
Amazon Music Unlimited may not beat their competitors in many fronts, but if you are already a Prime member and you love Alexa, this may be the perfect plan for you.
- Strengths: search, Alexa, integrated download store
- Weaknesses: user experience
Key information
- Type of service: premium on-demand music streaming
- Cost: $7.99/month for Prime members ($79/year) or $9.99/month for Amazon customers, first 30 days free. Single-device plan available for $3.99/month.
- Audio formats: lossy, MP3 at 256kbps
- Declared catalog size: 50 million tracks
- Platforms: mobile, desktop, Alexa-enabled devices, audio devices.
Experience
We all know Amazon. It provides a good service in anything they do and if you are already a Prime customer, you know it will give you a good price for any additional service you get. This is the case of Amazon Music Unlimited, which offers practically the same service as Apple and Spotify for only $7.99/month or $79/year to Prime members.
With a black background that is reminiscent of Tidal, Amazon’s music service is not the best in user experience. Its mobile app is organized in four sections: Home, Find, My Music and Alexa. The Home tab highlights features of the week, music you played recently and playlists. The Find tab features a search box at the top, shows your last searches and lets you browse stations, playlists, charts and new releases. The search, by the way, is quite powerful, with real time suggestions as you type, exactly as you find in amazon.com.
My Music features all the content you have saved. If you buy music from Amazon, it will show here as well, even if you bought it years before subscribing.
Using a whole tab for Alexa seems a little excessive. The whole point of voice assistants is not having to browse the app, but if your device does not support Alexa, that is all you get.
Catalog size and sound quality
Amazon is not the best in sound quality either, but with such a strong catalog, integration with Amazon Music purchases and the convenience of Alexa, Amazon’s streaming service is a great option for Prime members. Plus, if you are looking for CD-quality and hi-res audio, you can upgrade to Amazon Music HD.
Amazon claims a catalog of 50 million songs, only surpassed by Apple Music and Tidal. Yet, Amazon was more successful than Tidal at finding the songs I searched for. Amazon was of course the only service where I found Garth Brooks’ albums, but also the only one with Don Shirley’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”. It also beat Tidal in finding Asia’s self-titled album, The Entrance Band’s self-titled album from 2009 and. On the other hand, Amazon failed to deliver the soundtrack for the Jesus Christ Superstar movie and Tidal succeeded.
Integrations
Amazon Music Unlimited is well integrated in mobile, desktop, audio devices and, of course, Alexa-enabled devices.