Amazon has announced that it's launching a new free tier of Amazon Music for Alexa customers in the United States.
It's powered by ads, but as the retailers puts it, users will get to access "top Amazon Music playlists and thousands of stations at no cost."
Amazon Music Free Of Charge
In a blog post, Amazon says that all Alexa users can now access Amazon Music for free, even those who don't have an Amazon Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.
The company explains that customers can listen to stations based on a song, artist, era, or genre through the virtual assistant. They can also play songs via the service's top global playlists, among which are Country Heat, Pop Culture, and Fuego Latin.
For instance, users can ask Alexa to "play the playlist Hot Singles," "play the Imagine Dragons station," "play 90s music," or "play classic rock."
Considering the tier is free, it's not surprising that the selection is limited. The same goes for Amazon Prime members too, where the limit is set to 2 million songs. Only Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers get to access the service's more than 50 million collection.
Not Unexpected
Just recently, Amazon was rumored to roll out a free ad-supported version of Amazon Music to compete with the likes of Spotify, and from the look of things, that's exactly what's happening now.
This move seems to be in a bid to make Alexa-enabled devices such as the Echo smart speakers even more appealing. Back in January, Amazon revealed that it has sold more than 100 million Alexa-powered devices, and a free tier of Amazon Music could boost those numbers further.
On the audio front, the retailer appears to be gearing up to get a better position in the scene. As evidence to that, it's reportedly working on a pair of wireless earbuds with Alexa built in. It's said to be designed in direct competition with Apple's AirPods.
