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Some customers will have to pay a little more for Amazon Music.
Amazon Music Unlimited’s individual plan for non-Prime members in the U.S. is going up by $1 a month, from $9.99 to $10.99. Also, the price of the unlimited student plan on Amazon Music is going up from $4.99 per month to $5.99 per month.
In the U.K., the monthly price of Amazon Music Unlimited Individual will go up from £9.99 to £10.99, and the monthly price of the unlimited student plan will go up from £4.99 to £5.99.
The new prices will go into effect on February 21, 2023. After that, the customers’ next bill will include the new price and any taxes that apply. The e-commerce company said on its support website, “We are changing the prices of some Amazon Music Unlimited plans to help us bring you even more content and features.”
In May 2022, Amazon raised the price of Amazon Music Unlimited’s individual plan for Prime members from $7.99 per month to $8.99 per month, or from $79 to $89 per year. This happened after Amazon raised the price of Prime memberships in the U.S. for the first time in almost four years at the beginning of 2022, when the annual fee went from $119 to $139, a 17% increase.
Apple raised the price of Apple Music for the first time in October 2022, going from $9.99 to $10.99 per month for an individual plan and from $14.99 to $16.99 per month for a family plan with up to six accounts. This is why Amazon Music’s prices just went up again. Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, has also said that the company is considering raising prices in the U.S., where an individual plan still costs $9.99 per month.
Also, last fall, Amazon Music went from giving Prime members access to 2 million songs to giving them access to all of its 100 million songs. It also added tens of thousands of podcast episodes without ads, including all of Wondery’s shows. But Prime members who don’t pay for an unlimited plan are now mostly limited to shuffle play based on artist, album, or playlist. Before, they could stream any of the 2 million songs whenever they wanted to.
When does the new price come into effect?
On February 21, Amazon’s Music Unlimited streaming service will cost an extra $1/£1 in the U.S. and the U.K. Also, the price of the Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan is going up from $9.99 (£9.99) per month to $10.99 (£10.99), and the price of the student plan is going up from $4.99 (£4.99) per month to $5.99 (£5.99).
Billboard was the first to notice that the company had written about the price changes on its support page. Amazon wrote, “We are changing the prices of some Amazon Music Unlimited plans to help us bring you even more content and features.”
The company says that its Individual Plan and Student Plan will go up in price, but its Family Plan ($15.99/month) and Single-Device Plan ($4.99/month) will stay the same.
Amazon’s prices were last raised eight months ago. Then, the discounted Amazon Music Unlimited plan for Amazon Prime members went from $7.99 per month to $8.99 per month in May. This time, there were no changes for people who weren’t Prime members, who still had to pay $9.99 per month.
Amazon also has a free tier of Amazon Music called Amazon Music Prime, which lets you listen to music without seeing ads. But users must join Music Unlimited to get H.D., Ultra H.D., and Spatial Audio.
The e-commerce giant is in the middle of a cost-cutting spree that includes shutting down its charity donation program AmazonSmile and letting go of 18,000 employees earlier this month.
Apple just raised the price of its rival music streaming service, Apple Music, by $1 for individuals and $2 for families in the U.S., so Amazon did the same. In the US, Canada, and the U.K., Apple Music quietly raised the price of its student plan in June 2022.
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During the company’s October earnings call, CEO Daniel Ek said that Spotify is also thinking about raising the price of a subscription in the U.S. Ek said, “One of the things we’d like to do is raise prices.” “I feel really good about next year and what that means for our prices and services.” This would be a big change for the company since the standard subscription price in the U.S. has been $9.99 per month since it started in 2011.
