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Amazon Prime Music

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Re: Amazon Prime Music

#101

Post by marmarlade »

chc wrote: post #49
quotient wrote: post #23

Wow. This is outstanding. Amazon is solidly developing a one-stop centralized base of entertainment. Even more enticing is that it's free with prime, and even if you don't have prime, it's worth getting prime for: a small fee for a year's access to most music/films you could want. And then you have prime, which makes it much more enticing to buy products on Amazon (due to cheaper, faster delivery). Smart. (I am aware…

Do you really think so? I find Amazon Instant Video to be a distant also-ran to Netflix, and this music service is vastly inferior to literally every other one I have tried.

Amazon Prime has a solid video library, even compared to Netflix - or at least, it does in the UK. It's amazing how they're screwing it up on the positioning/awareness front though.

Only a few years ago, I was a convinced LoveFilm customer (Amazon bought LoveFilm in 2011) and only used Netflix on free trials. Oh how times have changed: since rebranding to Instant Video from LoveFilm, their base has dropped even further, and while everyone I speak to has at least heard of Netflix, nearly nobody is aware that their Amazon Prime membership also includes video.

And now with music, they don't even have a good library? Psssh.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#103

Post by DanielStraight »

psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

Casual consumers? Before Spotify, I basically only listened to music in my car, and then I just stuck the top 40 station on and dealt with the crap. Now, in 3 years on Spotify, I've listened to more than 10k distinct songs on 2.5k albums from 2k artists. I've gone from US top 40 to music from all around the world. In the last month, I have listened to artists from the US, Germany, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Belgium, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Turkey, Norway, India and China. I've listened to new releases and music from artists who have been dead for 60 years. I've curated numerous playlists for myself and others, and have become known as someone with broad and unusual tastes. I am constantly seeking out new and interesting music. Basically, I've become obsessed.

Spotify has enabled a degree of discovery and curation that is simply not possible for anyone without access to an insanely good record store and/or really, really deep pockets. I cannot imagine any reason to ever go back. If Spotify ever goes under or removes an artists I really like, I can always buy it then. But until then, I will happily pay my $10/month and keep using Spotify as my sole source of music. Frankly, I think Spotify is the cheapest thing I have ever spent money on when compared to the value it provides.

Even if I could afford to own all my Spotify music, I would have to be responsible for backing it up and moving it between devices or into the cloud. So I would get less value for 10-100x more money. And this figure isn't even counting the value of the discovery service that Spotify provides. If I meet someone from halfway across the world, I can ask for musical recommendations, and then listen to them in my car on the way home.

Honestly, I don't understand how you can seriously explore music without Spotify.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#104

Post by samolang »

swombat wrote: post #64
psychometry wrote: post #63

Isn't anyone interested in owning their music anymore? Have we all become such casual consumers of music that the concept of building a permanent library of music they like is unnecessary? I will never understand the appeal of subscription music services.

You're not alone. My blood congeals at the idea that access to the music I love is somehow restricted by a third party with a different agenda to mine. I have zero interest in a third party streaming service. Now, if I could install my very own self-hosted Spotify-alike, stick all my music on there, and stream it to my devices with a smooth wireless connection that works even when I'm in tunnels, then you've got me a…

Both Amazon and Google let you import your existing libraries and stream them.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#105

Post by freehunter »

L_Rahman wrote: post #13

1. Given my listening habits, the library feels limited. Tried searches for the three albums I listened to the most this month ( http://www.last.fm/user/labibrahman/charts ): Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso Chet Faker - Built on Glass Tycho - Awake None are available for streaming. For a standalone service, this would be damning. As one of the perks offered with Prime this has the potential to become a compelling part of t…

It's even more weird: it's not albums that are available or not, it's individual songs. An album I've been listening to while I work out: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZTL5Q0/ref=sr_1_1_rd?ie...

Blast Tyrant by Clutch. 3 songs from the original album plus one more from the extended album. This isn't an album where there's only two or three good songs, they're all solid gold if you like the genre. And I certainly wouldn't pick The Regulator as one of the top three songs; Ghost feels very similar but IMO has more going for it. So how did The Regulator get picked?

--I must have pissed someone off because I feel I'm being followed around and all of my posts downvoted for no reason at all. Please explain.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#106

Post by digitalsushi »

I am a USA prime account holder with an account that was renewed in January of this year (2014). I was curious why the amazon prime music page indicated I needed to upgrade my account, so, I clicked 'upgrade for 99 dollars'.

It went ahead and renewed my prime account with today's date, and sent me a new welcome email.

It's completely unclear if it has consumed my previous subscription with over half a year left.

So be cautious... probably I did not read enough!

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#107

Post by exhilaration »

caw wrote: post #93
L_Rahman wrote: post #13

1. Given my listening habits, the library feels limited. Tried searches for the three albums I listened to the most this month ( http://www.last.fm/user/labibrahman/charts ): Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso Chet Faker - Built on Glass Tycho - Awake None are available for streaming. For a standalone service, this would be damning. As one of the perks offered with Prime this has the potential to become a compelling part of t…

The standalone URL for the Amazon movie catalog is amazon.com/vod (for video on demand I suppose). That's both prime and non-prime shows. The UI is a bit weaker now on the website than it used to be. Before it would gray out the episodes you've watched. Now they gray out the background, but only if you've seen enough of the episode for it to "count". There's also a light green bar showing your progress through the ep…

Thanks for that amazon.com/vod URL -- I have all the same complaints about their interface but at least I can now skip right to the video library.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#108

Post by jimmyhmiller »

samolang wrote: post #104
swombat wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not alone. My blood congeals at the idea that access to the music I love is somehow restricted by a third party with a different agenda to mine. I have zero interest in a third party streaming service. Now, if I could install my very own self-hosted Spotify-alike, stick all my music on there, and stream it to my devices with a smooth wireless connection that works even when I'm in tunnels, then you've got me a…

Both Amazon and Google let you import your existing libraries and stream them.

I'm a prime member, have been for a while. I just tried to import my library, it said I had 250 songs I could import for free. It then asked me if I'd like to pay $25 to upgrade so I can import any number of songs. I was able to upload all my songs to google for free.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#109

Post by tekacs »

reboog711 wrote: post #85
rajivm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in the online video streaming industry and I've never heard of such a restriction. I have heard of such restrictions for music streaming, however. (i.e. to be a "radio" service, a.la Pandora, you cannot have a predictable linear playlist). Even if you have "auto-play", this is vastly different than the "scheduled content" of traditional TV. Netflix stops every few episodes because there are per-stream cos…

I have created plenty of playlists w/ Spotify that are very predictable and I often play them in a linear fashion. I've done the same w/ YouTube, but since they have such a wide array of disappearing content; they playlists aren't very predictable in the long-term.

> i.e. to be a "radio" service

> I have created plenty of playlists w/ Spotify

Spotify isn't and doesn't claim to be a radio service. They provide one, but it's a feature, not their premise.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#110

Post by icefox »

L_Rahman wrote: post #13

1. Given my listening habits, the library feels limited. Tried searches for the three albums I listened to the most this month ( http://www.last.fm/user/labibrahman/charts ): Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso Chet Faker - Built on Glass Tycho - Awake None are available for streaming. For a standalone service, this would be damning. As one of the perks offered with Prime this has the potential to become a compelling part of t…

> one of the perks offered with Prime

Just remember that the price of prime is going up $40 a year and part of that new $40/year you are paying is for this. As with many of the perks that Prime gets you it feels like it isn't very good, but it feels "free" so it is hard to complain much.

My fear would be that there are a lot of people that will be okay with Amazon Prime services that are not very good just because they got them for "free" thus stopping new companies from attempting to get in on the same market.

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