Amazon is the latest music streaming service, following Apple, to increase the price of its subscription plans.
In updates to its customer support pages in the U.S. and the U.K., Amazon said its Amazon Music Unlimited plan for individuals will go up from $9.99 to $10.99 a month (or £9.99 to £10.99 a month), while the student subscription will see a bump up from $4.99 to $5.99 a month (or £4.99 to £5.99). The price changes will go into effect on Feb. 21 in both regions.
With the upcoming price hikes, Amazon’s music streaming subscription will now cost the same as Apple Music, which saw a price increase for the first time last October. That same month, YouTube also bumped up the price of its YouTube Premium family plan, which includes access to music streaming, from $17.99/month to $22.99/month, though the individual YouTube Music premium plan remains at $9.99/month.
Spotify has thus far resisted a subscription price hike, keeping prices at $9.99/month for an individual plan and $4.99/month for a student plan, though CEO Daniel Ek has said the company is interested in raising its prices.
Amazon Music accounts for 13.3 percent of the global music streaming subscription market, according to the research firm Midia. Spotify leads with 30.5 percent, followed by Apple Music’s 13.7 percent. When it comes to podcasts, 0.7 percent of listening happens on Amazon Music, according to Buzzsprout. Apple Podcasts and Spotify take the lead with 38.6 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.
In November, Amazon rolled out a set of perks for Prime members to include shuffle-mode access to Amazon Music’s library of 100 million songs, up from 2 million. Prime members without Amazon Music Unlimited subscriptions can also listen to podcasts from Wondery, Audible, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Barstool Sports, Slate and ESPN without ads.
