In a huge blow to one of the best music streaming services, Amazon has announced that, starting September 19, Amazon Music Unlimited will cost more per month for existing Amazon Prime members.
Going forward, Amazon Music Unlimited will cost $9.99 for Prime members or $99 per year if you want to pay in advance. Family plans will also increase in price from $15.99 to $16.99 per month and from $159 to $169 per year.
This is the second time in two years that Amazon has raised the price of its Music Unlimited service, the last time being in May of 2022 when it raised the price from $7.99 to $8.99. Amazon also raised the price of its Prime annual subscription in February of last year.
While all of this goes into effect for existing subscribers on September 19, new users will see this price as soon as they sign up — in short, it’s already too late to take advantage of the older, lower price point if you haven’t signed up yet.
Analysis: The price hikes keep on coming
It’s been a bad few months for music streamers — prices have been shooting up across a number of streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube Music.
Spotify recently announced that it would increase the price of its ad-free tier from $9.99 to $10.99 while YouTube Music said it would raise the price of its subscription from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. Tidal increased the price of its standard HiFi tier from $9.99 to $10.99 earlier this month, while Apple Music went from $9.99 to $10.99 at the end of last year.
While the vast majority of these price increases are only a dollar more per month, they’re coming at a time when most folks have less money to spend on entertainment — and they really add up if you subscribe to additional streaming services like Disney Plus or Hulu + Live TV, both of which have seen their own price hikes.
In some ways, then, Amazon’s price hike feels justified — clearly there’s something happening behind the scenes that’s causing nearly every music and video streaming service to increase their monthly fees.
On the other hand, however, it’s coming at a time when everything else is increasing in price, which means that streaming lovers might have to make a choice as to which services they plan to keep and which ones they don’t mind cutting.
Not sure which streaming service to stick with? Check out our guide to the best streaming services.
