Almost every market Apple, Facebook and Google are in has been reportedly eyed up by Amazon and we continue to see reports on the 3D smartphone, TV set top box and gaming console.
The new rumor on the block says Amazon will release a music streaming service to rival Google Play All Access, iTunes Radio, Spotify and Pandora. Amazon already offers a music library for its Kindle devices and streaming is the new big thing.
Amazon will reportedly add this onto the Prime membership, along with free shipping and video streaming from Instant Video. This would make Prime even more of a solid deal, the free shipping was enough for some consumers but now it looks like Amazon wants to offer a whole range of content.
The catch of this service will be time, Amazon will only allow users to listen to tracks for a certain time, after they will be offered to buy the track from their MP3 store. This is a rather age old way to do business, considering the vast success Pandora and Spotify have had thanks to unlimited streaming.
It would also be a bit of a bad move to offer the music streaming service in the Prime package and not offer unlimited streaming. Perhaps the e-commerce giant will offer tiered payments, for $5 extra a month users will get the premium service.
Amazon is looking to up the price of Prime for members and this could be a reason to add the music streaming service. The service would tie into their ecosystem and allow artists another way to get recognised, we just wonder if anyone will want to use the streaming service or if it will become another Google Play All Access.
Whatever the case, we should put this in the same folder as the gaming console, set-top box and other Amazon hardware rumors that still haven’t come true.
