Free Amazon Prime Music - IF, BUT

Music Room
1

Now free IF you are a prime member, BUT only allows shuffle play.

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2

?

Always was free with Prime I thought. Unlimited and hd is the extra pay for service.

Prime was never shuffle only but was a limited number of albums/tracks. New service adds podcasts I think.

3

I recall signing upto the HD at launch then ditching it, always assumed it was at least £5 extra a month for Prime Members, the snip below also states “Now included with Prime”.

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It was an extra fiver for the HD (unlimited), but there are three levels of Amazon music. Free non prime, free prime, paid for Unlimited which includes hires. That offer doesn’t seem to be for the Unlimited service.

5

Why bother with it at all they make it so hard to use it in any Hifi system it’s just a waste of time free or not. Your stuck with AirPlay or Chromecast the latter doesn’t even support the lossless tier as it downgrades the streams to mp3. If you care about ease of use and quality then stick with services that are open and have decent apis to allow them to be integrated into software and hardware.

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6

I disagree. My Auralic system works rather well. No Chromecast or Airplay involved.

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7

I agree, i wasted 5 mins checking support with my Innuos or Naim.

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8

One of the few exceptions, Sonos Bluesound, Heos, DTS Play systems have support some only the non hires option.

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Indeed, my Bluesound and Auralic support it in one form or another. I would have looked more closely at high end Naim streaming if they supported it. I understand that not all manufacturers choose to pay for Amazon certification, but that is a commercial decision, hardly the fault of Amazon. Meanwhile as other kit is available and the sound quality is good then some of us will go with what is available. It’s a personal choice but it is limited by what is available.

10

The volume of tracks available is now hugely increased but on shuffle only. There remains the previous number not on shuffle

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11

Ah, thanks.

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12

Innuos were slated to have Amazon second quarter 2022. A few buyers are going to be upset presumably.

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It’s not just that it’s also down to their limited API. Any integration I have seen on Sonos and Bluesound is very basic compared to Qobuz or Tidal they also choose who they team up with. In the end they are more keen to sell Prime membership and their own hardware.

14

Fair enough. I found the Amazon sq to be as good as if not better in some cases than my Qobuz subscription, which I have now cancelled. The one advantage of Qubuz that I still use is that hi res downloads are available to buy, unlike Amazon where only cd quality is available for purchase.

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The way I look at it, I have spent a multiple of the annual cost of a streaming service on any number of individual audio items in even my relatively modest system (speaker cables, speaker isolation, Powerline, phono cartridge, etc.), not to mention the costs of electronics and speakers. Given my capital investment in this hobby, I’m not going to skimp on music. I certainly am not flippant about money, but is anyone on this board really going to put up with any sort of technical hassle, ads, shuffling or lower SQ just to get free or cheaper streaming? I’m not sure Amazon is chasing the typical Naim owner with this move.

Edit: Now, if you can give me hi-res streaming, the same 100 million tracks, no ads, no shuffling, and native support in my streamer (whatever that may be from time to time) for free, sign me up! :grinning:

16

I’ll let you know when I get problems. This is all new but I see it as my future ( and current) content provider.

Edit: Now, if you can give me hi-res streaming, Tick
the same 100 million tracks, Tick
no ads, Tick
no shuffling, Tick
native support in my streamer, Tick
for free, AH! :thinking:

17

Well this free version isn’t on demand playing that we are akin to the tracks are only available via radios which is more akin to Pandora you can’t choose a whole album it’s crap I guess as we usual you get nothing in this game for free.

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The thing is IMO, if they did it properly and allowed you to play what you wanted without shuffling, it would begin to rival Spotify and many people would switch.

I have Prime but never use Amazon music, preferring to pay another subscription for Spotify because if the ease of use and wealth of choice. I also have Qobuz for hi res.

If prime did it properly, I would ditch Spotify!

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19

The FREE version ins’t as good as the paid version shocker!

20

I’ve only recently resurrected the original Amazon Echo in the kitchen and was enjoying listening to some background music while pottering around or cooking.

This ‘shuffle play’ only for Prime members is a bit of a nuisance really, I don’t recall not being able to play albums in the past. Must check if it will still play my AutoRip or previously purchased albums still.

I suspect the reality is that most customers just don’t listen to whole albums and are happy with a radio station style mix.