Amazon Music Unlimited

What Hi-Fi UK

December 2024

A solid streaming service to rival Apple Music and Spotify

Amazon’s music streaming offering is split into Amazon Music Free, Amazon Music Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon Music Unlimited has everything, from ‘open to all’ access to its 100 million song catalogue (which includes CD-quality and hi-res) to podcasts, to curated playlists and more. In theory, that makes it a very credible Spotify and Apple Music rival.

If you want to drill down into the catalogue or want to access higher-quality tracks, then you need Music Unlimited, which is what we are focusing on here. Amazon regularly offers free trials that can run from 30 days to three months during some promotions, so you can always try before you buy.

Good compatibility

Following an August 2023 price rise, it now costs £10.99 to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited without a Prime membership. With a membership, this drops to £9.99 which is in line with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. The service’s family plan is now £17.99 a month, or you can pay £179 annually.

Amazon Music Unlimited is compatible with smartphones and tablets via its Android and iOS apps; PCs and Macs via either its web player or desktop app; Fire tablets and Fire TVs; some in-car entertainment systems; Sonos multi-room wireless speakers; Bluesound and NAD BluOS devices. It is worth noting that you can’t actually access CD-quality music or hi-res tracks in Amazon Music Unlimited through your browser, though. This can be done only through the dedicated desktop and mobile apps. Up to ten authorised devices can use Amazon Music on one account, although you can play through only one device at a time. Music can be downloaded to play offline on the iOS, Android and Fire tablet platforms. Amazon Music Unlimited also works on its homegrown Echo and Dot wireless speakers, as does Spotify.

And Amazon has worked to further its service’s functionality, integration and intelligence with its voice-control assistant Alexa.