Amazon Music
Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and Digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.[2]
Developer
September 25, 2007
Windows, macOS, iOS, tvOS, Android, Fire OS, Amazon Alexa, Amazon Echo, HTML5, Android TV, Wear OS, WatchOS
Variable
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay[1]
It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), as well as many independents.[3][4][5][6] All tracks were originally sold in 256 kilobits-per-second variable bitrate MP3 format without per-customer watermarking or DRM; however, some tracks are now watermarked.[7]
The service was launched in the United States as a public beta on September 25, 2007,[3] and the final version followed in January 2008. Amazon MP3 was launched in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2008, in Germany on April 1, 2009, and in France on June 10, 2009.[8] The German edition has been available in Austria and Switzerland since December 3, 2009. The Amazon MP3 store was launched in Japan on November 10, 2010.[9][10] The Spanish and Italian editions were launched on October 4, 2012. The edition in Mexico was announced on November 7, 2018.[1] Licensing agreements with recording companies restrict the countries in which the music can be sold.[11]
On September 17, 2019, Amazon Music announced the launch of Amazon Music HD, a new tier of lossless quality music with more than 50 million songs in High Definition (16bit/44.1 kHz), and millions of songs in Ultra High Definition (24(bit)/44(kHz), 24/48, 24/96, 24/192), the highest-quality streaming audio available. Amazon is now among Tidal and Qobuz who offer lossless music for audiophiles.[12] The HD streaming service was later made available to all unlimited customers for free on May 17, 2021.[13]
Supported platforms[edit]
Amazon Music's streaming music catalog is accessible from the Amazon.com web player using HTML DRM extensions[28] or from player apps for multiple platforms including macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, FireOS, Alexa devices, and some automobiles and smart TVs. Amazon's purchasable music catalog is accessible from the Amazon.com web site by searching for an artist or title name, or via a store embedded in many, but not all, of the player apps. To download purchased music, Amazon offers either the Amazon Music player (which runs on Windows 7 or later and Mac OS X 10.9 and later) or a zip file of MP3s downloaded from Amazon's web player.
Amazon Music previously offered additional applications, such as one for Blackberry and one for Palm. These are no longer offered. Amazon also previously offered a separate app for Mac OS X and Windows, called the Amazon Music Downloader, which is no longer available. The downloader was purely for downloading purchased tracks, it did not offer music playback capabilities.
In November 2018, it was announced that Amazon Music will be available on Android TV.[29]
In August 2019, Amazon Music got its first smartwatch app available on selected Garmin smartwatches.[30]
Partnerships[edit]
On February 1, 2008, Pepsi introduced a Pepsi Stuff promotion in partnership with Amazon MP3.[31][32] Customers can exchange points offered on 4 billion Pepsi bottles for, among other prizes, MP3 downloads from Warner, EMI, and Sony BMG (though not Universal).
Rockstar Games' 2008 title Grand Theft Auto IV connects to Amazon MP3. Players can register on the Rockstar Games Social Club web site to receive e-mail outside the game containing a link to buy marked songs from Amazon MP3.[33]
Myspace has sold music from Amazon MP3 as part of its MySpace Music feature since September 2008.[34]
On June 24, 2021, Amazon announced its acquisition of Art19, a major podcast hosting and monetization platform.[35]
Reaction[edit]
Initial reaction to Amazon MP3 was generally positive. The unofficial Apple Weblog praised the lack of DRM especially given that track prices were cheaper than iTunes Plus songs at launch, but the reviewer considered the user experience better in iTunes than on the Amazon web site.[36] Om Malik of Gigaom also praised the lack of DRM and the high bitrate but disliked the need to install another application to download albums. Overall, the reviewer said "…I think it makes sense for everyone to browse the Amazon store before hitting the 'buy' button on iTunes."[37]