Have you seen the commercials of Amazon’s Alexa? Alexa is Amazon’s talking machine. You speak a command to Alexa. She answers and carries it out. But wait…there’s more. In addition to commands, there’s music. As a result, Amazon, Alexa and music unlimited combine forces.
Amazon launches Amazon Music Unlimited. For $3.99 a month, customers get unlimited access to over 10 million songs. Furthermore, that’s twice the amount Apple Music costs. It’s several times the amount of Jay Z’s Tidal service. Seems like that’s the streaming service nobody wants. But there’s a catch. This service is available through Amazon devices only (like Echo or Amazon Tap). Also, you need Amazon Prime membership. With your own devices, you’ll pay $7.99. Without Amazon Prime membership nor Amazon device, you’ll pay $9.99 a month.
So, what does Alexa have to do with this? Quite a bit, actually. With Amazon Music Unlimited, you can ask for any song. For instance, you want to hear ‘No’ by Meghan Trainior. Just tell Alexa, “That new hot one by Meghan Trainor,” or the title and artist. You’ll get the song. Here’s another way you use Alexa. You want to hear a certain genre, or a certain decade. You don’t know, or you don’t care, what song it is. Say, “Alexa, play 1990s grunge”. You might get Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or Soundgarden’s ?”Black Hole Sun”. Hence, the possibilities are endless.
Amazon seems obsessed with dominating every aspect of our lives. They want to shop for us at grocery stores. They ship for us everyday of the week. Now, they want to play our music. I must admit, Amazon Music Unlimited is a great start. With the program alone, it rivals Apple Music and Spotify. However, you have to join Amazon Prime get an Amazon device to get the generous $3.99 a month price. I have mixed feeling about that one. But Alexa’s assistance in music titles, genres and even year and decades, is a huge plus. Just don’t expect me to ask Alexa to play any music from this decade! But back to this $3.99 price bargain. Will it get people to get Prime and devices? Or will it hinder people from getting Amazon Music Unlimited?