Amazon offers free ad-supported streaming serviceAmazon Music

Amazon offers free ad-supported streaming service

On Monday, Amazon launched a free ad-supported version of their music streaming service across platforms. Users of the program will have access to playlists and artist-based radio stations, but will be unable to playback specific songs or download content for offline listening, according to Variety.

The new addition of a free service complements their paid program, which offers unlimited playback of user-chosen songs. The move into free ad-supported streaming will directly compete with Spotify‘s free platform. After Amazon’s announcement, Spotify’s stock closed the day nearly 5 percent down, according to Variety.

According to the most recent report from Statista (March, 2018) Apple Music and Spotify are the leaders in American monthly users, with 49.5 and 47.7 million respectively. Amazon Music sat at a comparably meager 12.7 million monthly users, losing out to the likes of iHeartRadio, Google Play Music, SoundCloud and Pandora Radio.

Music streaming usage has rapidly been on the rise for the better part of the decade. According to Statista, user penetration in the US is expected to rise 39.2% to 41.5% by 2023, while revenue is expected to grow 3.3% each year during the same time period. While an increasing number of players enter the streaming space, it will be interesting to follow who comes out on top and if Amazon will be able to pull users away from other more established platforms.

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