Amazon Music which has only been around since 2016 has passed the 55 million subscriber mark, making it a serious threat to Apple’s service, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Amazon Music has been offering six price tiers, ranging from a free service to a premium, but Amazon said that “nearly all” of its users are paid subscribers.
“Amazon doesn’t talk numbers that much,” said Steve Boom, head of Amazon Music. “We felt like getting to this level of the scale was something worth talking about.”
Recently, Apple said its service had 60 million subscribers. The No. 1 service is Spotify, which has 113 million paying subscribers and about 248 million users.
Amazon is not new to music sales – the eCommerce company has been selling CDs since the ‘90s and has been offering downloads for years – but it was late to the streaming game. When it entered the market, there were already several other competing services, including Apple, Spotify and Tidal.
Amazon approached the music sector the same way it pursued its shipping and Prime offerings: with creative marketing.
“We’ve always been very focused on expanding the marketplace and offering customers lots of choices,” Boom said.
Amazon has also been competing with a lower price point, charging $8 per month for Prime members and $4 for people who listen to an Echo. Subscriptions in the service grew 50 percent in 2019, the company said.
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