This week, Amazon announced that it would open up its entire catalog of streaming music to Prime subscribers instead of the small library they had previously had access to. From 2 million songs to 100 million was the increase. That sounds great on the surface. They wouldn't want more songs if they had to pay more for Prime. You would need to pay separately for Amazon Music to get the same amount of music.
There are people who are angry about the changes that Amazon made in order to beef up its catalog. They no longer have complete control over the listening experience. I can relate to anyone freaked out because a service they were familiar with suddenly revised the rules and worked differently than before. Changes have been made to the Prime tier of Amazon Music after a long time of subscribers not liking it.
Some people are not disappointed. Many people who use Amazon Music for background music or casual listening reply with "this is great" A lot of people want to hear an artist on their speaker, but they don't pay much attention to the song.
Prime customers are reminded that they don't own anything with streaming services and that everything can change on a dime. People use free services more often than we think, and that's a lesson Amazon Music is learning. If you want to make changes that are sweeping, you need to have a reason for it. Is more music worth it? It's likely for the casual listener. There is a vocal group that is unhappy with the new approach.
Prime customers no longer have the ability to hear what they want when they want. The old catalog was much smaller, but it still allowed access to any song or album that was included. If you made a Prime song pool soundtrack, you could listen to it wherever you wanted, even if you didn't want to.
Now, that is all gone.
The company had to eliminate the freedom to play a specific song immediately in order to extend their catalog. Everyone is in the shuffle. Customers complain that carefullycurated playlists are changing to similar tracks instead of sticking to their original order. If you try to beat the shuffle system by making a new set of music you actually want to listen to, those will be filled with recommended tracks.
The included-with-Prime version of Amazon Music is similar to the free tier of the service. The Prime experience gave a lot of flexibility. Everything is different now.
Amazon says that bonuses like ad-free listening, offline downloads, and podcasts make up for the lack of music on demand. Several of the "All-Access" playlists are personalized for each user and allow them to choose a song or skip around to their favorites. All of this comes with a Prime membership and is free. Some Prime subscribers are considering canceling the service because that isn't the same as free.
Some customers are reporting problems and bugs when trying to play their purchased and uploaded songs in ways that used to be possible. They think that some of the content is harder to find. The company still sells digital music separately from its subscription service even though it stopped accepting uploads a long time ago. Digital copies of select CDs and vinyl albums are given to customers who buy them from its store. It should be easy to get that after this move. You should call the company's customer service if it is.
You can listen to purchased music through your library, artist pages on Amazon Music, and through the voice of the person you bought it from. If you mix owned content with other tracks it will play in shuffle mode. Music can be streamed on demand. It is possible that Amazon is still working out some issues after the big catalog expansion.
The company has reached out to Amazon. Either way, the company isn't about to double back on this new path; Amazon Music VP Steve Boom laid out all the reasoning behind the changes on Decoder, and some analyst firms see a lot of potential. It's impractical to be able to choose between 2 million and 100 million songs with full control or shuffle mode. There is no way that Amazon is not listening to this feedback. Customers are unsure if they should pay for a full Amazon Music unlimited subscription or go elsewhere for their music fix.
I lead a chaotic life when it comes to digital music, even though I have an Apple Lossless library and hundreds of personal uploads. I think I get free Apple Music from the same company. I have options if any service ever hurts my feelings. In this constantly evolving era of subscriptions, it is a good idea to have a backup plan.
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