Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.[2]
It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), as well as many independents.[3][4][5][6] All tracks were originally sold in 256 kilobits-per-second variable bitrate MP3 format without per-customer watermarking or DRM; however, some tracks are now watermarked.[7]
The service was launched in the United States as a public beta on September 25, 2007,[3] and the final version followed in January 2008. Amazon MP3 was launched in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, in Germany on April 1, 2009, and in France on June 10, 2009.[8] The German edition has been available in Austria and Switzerland since December 3, 2009. The Amazon MP3 store was launched in Japan on November 10, 2010.[9][10] The Spanish and Italian editions were launched on October 4, 2012. The edition in Mexico was announced on November 7, 2018.[1] Licensing agreements with recording companies restrict the countries in which the music can be sold.[11]
On September 17, 2019, Amazon Music announced the launch of Amazon Music HD, a new tier of lossless quality music with more than 50 million songs in High Definition (16bit/44.1 kHz), and millions of songs in Ultra High Definition (24(bit)/44(kHz), 24/48, 24/96, 24/192), the highest-quality streaming audio available. Amazon is now among Tidal and Qobuz who offer lossless music for audiophiles.[12] The HD streaming service was later made available to all unlimited customers for free on May 17, 2021.[13]
Availability
At launch, Amazon offered “over 2 million songs from over 180,000 artists and over 20,000 labels, including EMI and Universal Music Group“, to customers located in the United States only.[3] In December 2007 Warner Bros. Music Group announced that it would offer its catalog on Amazon MP3[14] and in January 2008, Sony BMG followed suit.[5][6] The current catalog is 29.1 million songs.[15]
In January 2008, Amazon announced plans to roll Amazon MP3 out “internationally”.[16] Amazon limits international access by checking users’ credit card issued country. The first international version was launched December 3, 2008 in the United Kingdom. German, Austrian,[17] French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish,[18] Canadian,[19] and Indian[20] versions of the store followed.
Amazon Music tiers
In addition to digital purchases, Amazon Music also serves streaming music.
Music Free, a free ad-based service offering access to selected playlists and stations, with skip limits and shuffle playback.[21][22]
Music Prime, a service offering unlimited streaming of a limited music catalog, has been available to Amazon Video subscribers at no additional cost in several countries since mid-2014.[23]
Music Unlimited, a full-catalog streaming service, has been available as an additional tier or as a standalone subscription since late 2016;[24] though, in India, there is only one tier of Amazon Music available, known as the Amazon Prime Music, and is provided to all the existing Prime members at no additional cost and gives access to the full catalog, including podcasts.[25]
