Amazon Music has been on the come-up for quite some time, although people probably didn't think that it was going to be as viable as it's proved itself to be. In the beginning, Amazon's music app was included with an Amazon Prime subscription, which seemed fair given that it was vastly more restrictive than other popular streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and Rdio. It had a very limited selection of more recent and popular songs than the aforementioned streaming services, something that wasn't a good fit for a lot of younger people.
Not only was it not up-to-date on today's hits, it was also very slow and it limited the number of devices and people that were allowed to use the service, which is similar to Spotify's free streaming service.
For some, Amazon Music was very tempting because it was included without any additional costs to its Prime customers. Yet Amazon strived to up the ante and provide a better streaming service that gave the most popular streaming services currently available a run for their money.
Amazon Music Unlimited
On 12 October 2016, Amazon released its unlimited streaming service to all of its customers for both non-Prime and Prime members. For non-Prime members, you can expect to pay $9.99/month for a full access subscription to the unlimited streaming service; for Prime members, you can expect to pay $7.99/month or $79 annually to upgrade your current Amazon Music selection to the Amazon Music Unlimited package.
Amazon's music service is currently supported on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, FireOS, and Amazon Alexa. With new artists songs being updated regularly, you can, for the most part, expect to find recent popular songs through the streaming service.
What's not included
While you can definitely find popular songs by artists like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Bruno Mars, there are some classic musical artists' and their albums that you won't be able to find of Amazon Music or Amazon Music unlimited.
These include artists such as Aaliyah, Yoko Ono, and Suede. While the lack of these artists may not be the biggest deterrent for new subscribers and users, it still shows that the streaming service isn't at the very top of its game just yet.
Other than older songs, some newer and more recent artists' songs, such as Migos and Cardi B, have been removed from the streaming service presumably per the labels that the artists are signed to.
Still, when it comes to a streaming service that gives you access to your favorite music on your computers and mobile devices, Amazon has once again tapped into a niche business area and seems to be perfecting a work of art to provide its customers with everything that they need to look to them for anything and everything from A to Z.