Key Takeaways
- Amazon Prime offers free music, but Music Unlimited offers more features.
- Amazon Prime Music has Limited, while Unlimited has high-resolution audio and a fully on-demand service.
- If you have Amazon Prime, try Music Prime first, then upgrade to Unlimited if necessary.
Amazon offers a lot to its customers through Amazon Prime. You’ll get what you expect: free one- or two-day shipping, additional deals on Amazon Prime Days, access to Amazon Prime Video, and some perks for Twitch users, Kindle readers, and more. Another perk is access to Amazon Music Prime, a nearly full-featured music streaming service.
Alternatively, people can get Amazon Music Unlimited. It doesn’t require an Amazon Prime account and offers more features than Amazon Prime Music. But the differences between the two go beyond appearance. So, let’s take a look at the two services and their differences.
The Complete Guide to Amazon Prime: Cost, Benefits, and What’s Included
If you’re considering an Amazon Prime subscription, here’s everything you need to know, including pricing, benefits, and how to sign up.
Music Prime is a Prime subscription benefit.
You may not even know you have access.
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Amazon Music Prime is the version of Amazon Music that comes as part of your Amazon Prime membership. You can listen to all the songs on the service, along with ad-free podcasts. Amazon currently boasts over 100 million tracks and an unknown number of podcasts. But Amazon says there are millions of them.
Amazon Prime Music also features shuffle mode streaming, no skip limits for playlists or existing stations, and the service lets you download music to listen to offline. Offline playback is limited to the user’s All-Access playlist. It’s available on all platforms that support Amazon Music, although some platforms may have additional restrictions. For example, a Fire tablet like the Fire HD 10 may not have access to your entire music library.
How to Cancel Amazon Music Unlimited and Try Alternatives
Amazon Music Unlimited is a great service for streaming music, but if you no longer want it, here’s how to cancel your subscription in 6 easy steps.
Unlock HD Audio with Music Unlimited
We have all products, including podcasts.
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Amazon Music Unlimited is the best music streaming from Amazon. You don’t need an Amazon Prime account to use it, but you can get a small discount if you have one. Non-Prime customers pay $10.99 per month, and Prime members can receive the service for $9.99. This version of the service is superficially similar to Amazon Music Prime, including full on-demand access to 100 million music tracks, a full podcast library, and cross-platform support.
Amazon Music Unlimited also adds some additional features. One example is HD and Ultra HD music in what Amazon calls Hi-Fi mode. We’re also introducing spatial audio and improved support for Fire TV and Fire tablet devices. The family plan lets you stream on up to 6 devices at once.
What is Amazon Music Unlimited and how does it work?
Everything you need to know about Amazon Music Unlimited pricing, quality, and device support.
Amazon Music Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited: Key Differences
The more you look, the bigger the difference becomes.
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Let’s take a look at them feature by feature and discuss the differences between the two. We’ll also compare it to the free Amazon Music options available.
amazon music free |
Amazon Music Prime |
Amazon Music Unlimited |
|
price: |
free |
Free on Amazon Prime |
$10.99 per month ($9.99 for Prime members) |
Number of songs: |
1 million |
1 million |
1 million |
Podcast: |
yes |
Yes (excluding Fire TV devices) |
yes |
Listen on demand: |
No, only radio stations |
No, only shuffle mode |
yes |
Radio stations: |
yes |
yes |
yes |
audio quality |
Up to 320kbps |
Up to 320kbps |
Up to 320 kbps, HD and Ultra HD (lossless) |
Spatial Audio: |
no |
no |
yes |
No ads: |
no |
Yes, except podcasts on Fire Tablets |
yes |
limit: |
One device, limited skips |
One device, all-access playlists, unlimited skips |
Up to 6 devices, unlimited skips on family plan |
Alexa Support: |
yes |
yes |
yes |
offline support |
no |
All Access Playlist Only |
yes |
It’s when you get to the point that the differences really start to emerge. For example, Music Unlimited lets you play everything on the service ad-free, on any device, all the time. For Music Prime, podcasts are not available on Fire TV devices and you will hear ads when listening to podcasts on Fire Tablet devices. But all in all, the biggest difference between the two is that Unlimited offers full on-demand support. Amazon Music Prime lets you listen to any song you want, but it usually defaults to shuffle mode.
Amazon Music Unlimited vs. Spotify: Which is Best?
Spotify has long been the streaming service of choice, but with the rise of Amazon, is now time to switch to Amazon Music Unlimited?
Should you try Amazon Music Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited?
If you have Prime, use Amazon Music Prime.
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Fortunately, this is an easy question to answer. If you have an Amazon Prime membership, you can try Amazon Music Prime without paying extra. This is a perk of membership, so there’s no risk in giving it a try. If you like what you see and want the full experience, upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited. It is the same app, and you can upgrade directly through the app. Additionally, Amazon usually offers a free trial of 1 to 3 months. As of this writing, three months have passed. If you don’t want to use the free trial, simply cancel.
Amazon Music Prime
Prime members get free access to Amazon Music, which features a library of 100 million ad-free songs, an extensive collection of popular ad-free podcasts, and a variety of playlists and stations. All of this is included with your Prime membership at no additional cost.
How to cancel Amazon Music
Amazon’s music service can be a solid value, but if you want to cancel, here’s how to do so.
But which Amazon music service is better?
I think the one with more features is definitely better.
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That’s an easy answer too. Amazon Music Unlimited is a great choice. High-resolution music options, full on-demand support, and full offline support alone make comparisons very easy. Yes, it’s a more expensive option, but you’ll pay roughly the same price for Spotify, YouTube Music, or Apple Music either way. Among its major competitors, only Apple Music offers high-resolution and spatial audio. It’s not easy to find features offered at this price. Amazon has a pretty good streaming service.
Regardless, Amazon Music Prime is still a very good deal. Like Amazon Prime Video, it’s included in the price of a regular Prime membership, so even people who don’t need the extra features or HD audio capabilities can get by with Music Prime. As mentioned, it also uses the same apps as Music Unlimited, so you can set up your library, All-Access playlists, and everything else. If you decide to upgrade later, you won’t have to deal with the hassle of moving your playlists and libraries from one service to another.
Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music Unlimited is leveraging Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio technologies to enhance its library with a wider variety of spatial audio tracks. Prime subscribers can get Amazon Music Unlimited for $9.99 per month or choose an annual membership for $99. Customers without Prime can use the service for $10.99 per month.
How to Create and Edit Amazon Music Playlists with Alexa
Catch? Works only with Amazon Music. Here’s how it works:
frequently asked questions
Q: How do I cancel Amazon Music Prime or Unlimited?
Well, Amazon Prime Music is available as part of your Amazon Prime subscription. So, if you cancel regular Amazon Prime, you will cancel Amazon Music Prime, Amazon Prime Video, and all other benefits you get with your subscription. For Unlimited, Amazon has a webpage dedicated to the music service. Go there to start canceling Amazon Music Unlimited.
Q: Are Amazon Music Prime and Unlimited compatible with Alexa?
yes. In fact, all three versions of Amazon Music are supported, including the free version. However, there are limitations depending on each price tier. Except, of course, for Unlimited, which has no limits. There was no Amazon Alexa device available to test all three layers. However, with the free version, you can ask Alexa to play free music and it will launch a radio station with ads. Amazon Music Prime does the same thing, except there are no ads. Unlimited allows you to request specific songs or playlists.