As of 2022, Spotify is the most popular streaming service globally, capturing some 30% of the total streaming market. Apple Music is next, at around 15%, followed by Amazon Music at 13%.
Spotify has a slick interface combined with plenty of awesome features for music and podcast listeners. It’s available on a monthly or yearly subscription basis, but there is a free version with limited features.
We live in a world of subscription products – another incredibly popular subscription product is Amazon Prime. Jeff Bezos revealed that Amazon Prime had more than 200 million members as of 2021.
Amazon Prime comes with many benefits other than the ultra-fast delivery that made it famous in the first place.
One of the lesser-known benefits of Prime membership is Amazon Prime Music. Amazon Prime Music provides a limited selection of music to Prime members as part of their monthly subscription.
In addition to Amazon Prime Music, Amazon offers a separate additional service called Amazon Music Unlimited. So many subscriptions, so little time! Things can get pretty confusing!
Here, we’ll be answering “Is Spotify free with Amazon Prime”, and many related questions.
Let’s go!
Is Spotify free with Amazon Prime?
Spotify is not free with Amazon Prime and is unlikely ever to be unless the two tech giants strike up an unexpected partnership.
While Amazon’s music streaming services are not their core products, Amazon Music is still one of Spotify’s main competitors. Spotify and Amazon Music are two different services under different management and ownership.
However, if you’re already an Amazon Prime member, you don’t necessarily need Spotify to stream music. With Amazon Prime, you get access to Amazon Prime Music.
This is included in an Amazon Prime membership, so if you’ve got Prime, you can use Amazon Prime Music at no extra cost.
What is Amazon Prime Music?
Amazon Prime Music is a music streaming service like Spotify and Apple Music, but it’s stripped down to provide a barebones experience. After all, Amazon Prime Music is essentially ‘free’ with Prime, which makes it excellent value compared to all other music streaming services.
Some big releases from famous bands and record labels are available, but the catalog is restricted to around 2 million tracks – a far cry from Spotify’s 60 million.
Moreover, there are very few podcasts available and limited options for customization, building playlists, etc. However, you do get access to some curated playlists and personalized radio stations.
Quality is also an issue as tunes are restricted to 256kbps, below the modern industry standard of 320kpbs. Whether or not there’s an audible difference in most listening scenarios is debatable.
If you want to take your Amazon Music experience a step further, you can upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited.
- Amazon Prime Music is included with an Amazon Prime membership.
- Provides a limited selection of songs and playlists.
- Quality limited to 256kbs.
- Works well with Alexa.
What is Amazon Music Unlimited?
Amazon Music Unlimited is not included in Prime, but it is offered to Prime members at a discounted $7.99/month, whereas non-Prime customers pay the full $9.99/month (the same as Spotify).
Amazon Music Unlimited is much more similar to Spotify and Apple Music. It has an enormous catalog of some 90 million tracks, tons of podcasts, excellent user features, etc. For Prime members, it represents good value compared to Spotify.
- Amazon’s fully-featured streaming service
- Costs $7.99/month for Prime members, whereas non-Prime customers pay $9.99/month (the same cost as Spotify).
- Huge catalog of some 90 million tracks.
- High-quality audio files.
- Works well with Alexa.
Does Amazon Prime Music have the same tracks as Spotify?
Spotify’s catalog is around 60 million tracks. It grows by around 40,000 tracks every day.
Contrastingly, Amazon Prime Music’s catalog is comparatively small at just 2 million tracks. Many of these are not ‘official’ releases from top record labels.
Amazon Prime Music doesn’t really compare to Spotify for music playback, but Amazon Music Unlimited does.
Amazon Music Unlimited has a huge catalog of some 90 million tracks, including tons of podcasts, radio stations, curated playlists, etc. It’s not as popular as Spotify, but its user base grows every year.
Amazon Music Unlimited isn’t free with Prime, but it costs just $7.99/month for Prime users, whereas non-Prime customers pay $9.99/month.
For Prime members, Amazon Music Unlimited costs less than Spotify’s $9.99/month, making it an attractive choice for anyone who already has Prime. Also, the service works perfectly with Alexa.
For more information about Spotify and Amazon Music take a look at this YouTube video.
How do I link Amazon Prime to Spotify?
You can’t link Amazon Prime to Spotify. However, if you have an Amazon Alexa, you can connect Spotify to your Alexa smart speaker device. This will enable you to play music from Spotify on Alexa via voice command.
To link Spotify to Amazon Alexa:
- If you haven’t already, download the Amazon Alexa app from Google Play or the App Store.
- If you haven’t already, connect your Alexa, then go to “Settings,” select “Music,” and click “Link New Service”.
- Select “Spotify” and input your Spotify username and password.
- You can set Spotify as your default music app for Alexa by selecting it from “Default Services”.
- Music voice commands should now trigger Spotify.
This is quite charitable of Amazon, given that Spotify is a competitor to Amazon Music Unlimited. So, if you have an Amazon Alexa but want to use Spotify, don’t worry – you’re covered!
Do Amazon Prime members get free music?
Amazon Prime members get free music through the Amazon Prime Music service. Amazon Prime Music is available to everyone with an Amazon Prime account at no additional cost.
Amazon Prime Music is a basic music streaming service. It’s nowhere near as large and sophisticated as Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music Unlimited.
However, it’s still decent enough for playing music with an Alexa and allows you to listen to other music you’ve purchased through Amazon.
Can you copy a playlist from Amazon Music to Spotify?
While there’s no official method for transferring playlists from Amazon Music to Spotify, some third-party services are capable of transferring them for you.
One such app is Free Your Music. You can automatically copy your music across by adding Amazon Music as a source and Spotify as a destination.
Another option is Soundiiz, which works in pretty much the same way. You have to pay a small amount for these services, so make sure you get your music in order before transferring!
