Amazon announces premium streaming service Music Unlimited

Amazon is revamping its music efforts.

The giant online retailer announced Amazon Music Unlimited on Wednesday morning, a premium streaming service aimed at taking a bite of the industry led by Spotify and Apple Music. Plans to access Amazon’s catalogue of songs and handcrafted playlists, online or via the updated Amazon Music app, run for $7.99 per month or $79 per year for Prime members and $9.99 for non-Prime subscribers. A family plan for up to six people will come later this year for $14.99 per month or $149 per year.

Owners of Amazon’s smart speaker Echo can subscribe to Music Unlimited for $3.99 per month. Alexa, Echo’s personal assistant, can be asked to play a specific artist, a certain genre or decade of music, or even be asked to find a song based on a few lyrics. Their Side-by-Side feature will play songs from particular artists, who will personally provide commentary on their tracks and albums.

Spotify and Amazon Music already have strong footholds in the streaming wars. The former had 40 million paid subscribers as of last month, while the latter boasted 17 million.