Amazon Music sweetens offering to Prime members with free access to full music catalog and ad-free podcasts

Amazon Music announced it has expanded its Prime benefit for members. The music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon said on Tuesday, Nov. 1, that all Prime members will now be able to enjoy more free music as it raised the number of free songs from two million to 100 million in shuffle mode.

In addition, Amazon Music is also offering ad-free podcasts at no extra cost on the Prime membership fee. This is surely a sweet benefit laid out for members of its subscription service. As per Fox Business, the ad-free catalog for Prime members was very limited before the announcement of this updated perk.

The move is part of the streaming platform’s content expansion plan, and for the podcasts, Amazon Prime members will get to view most of the leading podcast's content without any advertisement for uninterrupted viewing. Some of the premium shows include Keke Palmer’s new original podcast "Baby, this is Keke Palmer" and "MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories."

Moreover, Amazon Music revealed that the decision to upgrade the Prime benefits came after customers demanded full access to all the music catalogs. Their requests were heard, and now members can easily shuffle play any music artist, album, or playlist.

Then again, it was mentioned that there is still an option to further upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited to avail of on-demand access, which offers spatial audio with song lists in HD and Ultra HD.

Meanwhile, Amazon raised its annual membership fee to $139 in February this year. This was previously just $119, and for monthly Prime membership, it is now $14.99 from the original $12.99. This means that paying monthly is more expensive since the total is almost $180.

“When Amazon Music first launched for Prime members, we offered an ad-free catalog of 2 million songs, which was completely unique for music streaming at the time,” Amazon Music’s vice president, Steve Boom, said in a press release.

He added, “We continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and to bring even more entertainment to Prime members, on top of the convenience and value they already enjoy. We can’t wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalog of songs but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership.”

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