Amazon Prime Music • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#111

Post by fooqux » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 1:57 PM UTC

This has the same problems that I have with Prime Video:

1) The interface is rather horrid when compared to services in the same category, like Netflix. Others have already expounded on this though, so I won't waste the bytes.

2) I hate, hate, HATE being told I have access to all these movies/songs, only to find that the content I searched for isn't available to stream unless I pay extra money on top of the service I already have. Logically I say that it's better to have extra options- but I've never gotten as mad at Netflix for not having what I want to watch as I've gotten at Amazon for having what I want to watch, but needing to pay extra.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#112

Post by willu » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:00 PM UTC

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…

FWIW, they do have Tycho...

http://www.amazon.com/Awake-Tycho/dp/B00FSU5OFS/

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#113

Post by mikewhy » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:08 PM UTC

err4nt wrote: post #97

stephenc_c_ wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do that with Subsonic: http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

skip Subsonic and migrate to Plex. I do have a paid subscription because I love the software so much, but here's why it's so great: The media server can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, so I have it set up on my web server. You can then use a client on Windows, Mac, iOS, or the web browser to stream music, photos, and movies. You can also share your library with other Plex users, so if you have libraries that are alwa…

Big fan of Plex but haven't used the music features yet. How reliable is the metadata fetching? Or do you just point it to an iTunes library file?

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#114

Post by adsfasdf23f23f » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:08 PM UTC

icefox wrote: post #110

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 th…

It went up $20 right, is there another increase scheduled?

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#115

Post by TetOn » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:09 PM UTC

bradleybuda wrote: post #14

The UX for this is very awkward (unless I'm missing something) - the "store" and the "player" are completely disjoint experiences with only a few marketing links between them. You can't actually add new (free) "Prime Music" to your collection from the player - you have to jump to the "store" to discover the music you want and add it to your cloud library. Nor can you play full songs from the "store", even if you have…

Exactly. And, if you don't already have the Cloud Player application on your computer, you're shown nothing and told to sign up online. No link, no further explanation.

Okay, except you can't actually sign up online. Searching through Amazon and Google, you may eventually discover you need to download another application, which of course requires you to enter separate credit card information from that Amazon already has on file for your Prime membership, download a downloader, then use that to download the music application, which may finally allow you to sign up to use the service for which you are supposed to be already paying for (e.g. Prime).

I'd say that fairly well qualifies as the worst possible "new" user experience. I mean that quite literally; it appears to have been optimized at each and every step to be as bad as is possible given current limitations. Well played, Amazon; I expect total music dominance within the quarter.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#116

Post by e40 » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:10 PM UTC

icefox wrote: post #110

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 th…

In the US it's going up $20, from $80 to $100.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#117

Post by willu » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:12 PM UTC

I was actually pretty excited about this because they happen to have a lot of music I listen to (electronic). I loaded up about two dozen albums and downloaded their Android MP3 app. Tried to play a track and was told the track was no longer Prime eligible. The whole album grayed out and when accessed says "We're sorry but this album is no longer available in Amazon's catalog".

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#118

Post by scdc » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:32 PM UTC

Would love to see this work in the Sonos app. I'm a Prime member & just added a bunch of albums to my Amazon Music Player via web browser. Switched to Sonos and the AMP, but only see the ones I've purchased.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#119

Post by taskstrike » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:35 PM UTC

A lot of comments seems to be negative on this.

As a amazon prime subscriber, this is great for me, here's why:

1. I have amazon prime for their delivery, and this is basically a free music service for my mobile that is unmatched by anything else. (Free spotify sucks on mobile in comparison, and can't be used offline)

2. Downloaded songs basically gives me a library and allows me to use the song everywhere.

3. A million songs is a lot, unless you listen a lot to very esoteric bands, it works well.

The app is crashing on search for me, but it doesn't matter, the content is so great I will keep going back. Amazon Prime video already trumped netflix with their HBO library acquisition. I am psyched to see what they will try next.

Re: Amazon Prime Music

#120

Post by what_ever » Thu, Jun 12, 2014, 2:51 PM UTC

andrewguenther wrote: post #12

This is seriously a usability disaster. I have to go through the normal Amazon store to add music to my prime library? I have to leave the player to find music to listen to? No thank you.

I can't believe they launched something this big with that UI. If they had an app comparable to that of Spotify on mobile and desktop, so many people would have jumped right on it.