"Amazon" has recently announced that its music Storage subscriptions plans, both free and paid, are ending. New subscriptions will be accepted until January 15, 2018. Amazon has not yet commented on the reason for this move.
Upcoming changes for current users
there are several changes coming to music storage plans. For the free 250 song storage plan, the ability to upload music will be removed from PC and Mac by December 18. Music that is already uploaded can be played or downloaded until January 2019.
For paid 250,000 song storage plans, the changes are laid out as follows:
- While you remain a paid member, you retain the ability to upload music and renew your subscription.
- You can view and manage your Amazon Music storage subscription from Your Amazon Music Settings.
- If your current storage plan expires without being renewed, you won’t have the option to restart your subscription.
- Once expired, your Amazon music purchases will remain securely stored for free, but you will not be able to upload music.
- If you have more than 250 imported songs when your subscription period is over, you won't be able to access the additional songs.
- All songs that exceed the 250 song limit are removed.
- You can download and play the remaining 250 songs for one (1) year after your subscription expires when the remaining 250 songs will be removed.
In the end, paid users will be hurt by this the most, losing the majority of their library if they don't move it to a computer or another device.
However, it's worth noting that this change will only affect music imported to Amazon Music. All music purchased through Amazon, either Mp3's or AutoRip from CD's, will still be available.
Good or bad move?
The removal of this service makes sense when thinking about Amazon Music and Music Unlimited. It's understandable that they would want their customers to focus on their current services, which is likely to make them more money. However, this also has the potential to alienate many of their customers, especially those who paid for Music Storage.
If anyone uses Amazon Music exclusively, this means that they might lose over 200,000 songs from their library, and would either have to buy all those songs again or use Music Unlimited, which may not have some of the songs they imported to Music Storage.
What makes this still more difficult is the fact that companies like Apple and Google still provides ways for you to add imported songs, with iTunes Match, synching through Apple Music, or Google's scan-and-match. Amazon users may feel like they are being cheated, and move to services like Apple and Google for their music.
On the other hand, this may be a sign of how all music providers will be moving forward.
We might hear similar announcements from Google and Apple in the future. For now, we'll have to wait and see.
For more news on Amazon, read the complete comparison of Amazon Echo vs Apple Homepod vs Google Home, and how the Xiamoi smart speaker might beat them all.
