Amazon Increases Prices for Prime Members Once Again. Is It Still Worth It? The streamer's Music Unlimited offering will increase by $1 starting May 5.
By Emily Rella
Looks like there's more bad news for Amazon Prime members. The service's latest price hike makes the Prime membership virtually useless when it comes to Amazon Music.
The online behemoth shared that it would be raising the price for its Amazon Music Unlimited plan from $7.99 to $8.99 for Prime members, as well as increasing the price of a "Single Device" (either an Amazon Echo or Fire TV) subscription by $1, from $3.99 to $4.99.
Most notably, prices for non-Prime members will remain at $9.99, meaning that Prime members now get only a $1 discount on the unlimited music service beginning May 5.
Related: Customers Calling to 'Cancel' Amazon Prime After New Price Hikes Announced
Those currently using the service as a part of a trial period or promotional offer will still be able to keep the discount they signed up for. "Once that period ends," Amazon said in a statement, "we will honor the original subscription price plus applicable taxes for one billing cycle. The new pricing plus applicable taxes will go into effect on the bill after that."
This latest price hike comes after February's increases for Annual Prime memberships, which jumped from $119 to $139, while monthly subscriptions increased from $12.99 to $14.99. This was the first time increases in the service had been implemented since 2018.
Coinciding with this news, Amazon was down over 3.34% as of late Wednesday morning, and down around 1.63% year over year at the same time.
It should be said that Amazon Music's new annual prices for Prime members are still competitive in regards to other streaming giants. Spotify Premium (which allows unlimited, ad-free access to all libraries) offers the first month free to subscribers before charging a $9.99 monthly fee for the service. The equivalent on Apple Music, dubbed the Individual plan, also runs a $9.99 monthly fee.
The short of it? Amazon Music Unlimited does boast the cheapest price for streaming unlimited music for Prime members, but if music is the primary reason you've signed up for a Prime membership, it might not be worth it.
