Amazon Music Expands Ad-Free Audio Offer for Prime Members

Amazon Music has expanded its ad-free audio content for people subscribing to its Amazon Music Prime middle tier, a strategy that aims to add value for Prime members to keep them signed up. Originally, the platform's mid-tier users would get access to 2 million songs ad-free with unlimited skips. Now, this has extended to its music catalog of more than100 million songs. Amazon Music's top podcasts from publishers such as The New York Times, CNN, Barstool and Wondery's entire catalog—the company's podcast network which is home to shows like Dr. Death and Even the Rich—will also be ad-free to Prime users. The company also unveiled Podcast Previews, a feature within Amazon Music that lets people preview a soundbite from a podcast episode while browsing, a feature that could try to solve the low discoverability of new podcasts. It also launched a new Amazon Exclusive podcast series with NOPE star Keke Palmer titled Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. Palmer's show is available and ad-free on the platform. "We can’t wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalog of songs, but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership,” said Amazon Music vice president Steve Boom. For non-Prime subscribers, Amazon Music's tier gives access to all music stations, playlists, and all podcasts streaming on the platform with ads. Members can also upgrade to the Amazon Music Unlimited tier, its top offering, costing $8.99 for Prime members and $9.99 for non-Prime members, which includes its full music catalog and top podcasts ad-free in HD, Ultra HD quality and Spatial audio. Last week, Big Tech company earnings like Meta and Alphabet showed a slowdown in their ad revenue growth during their third-quarter earnings reports. By contrast, Amazon's ad business grew, albeit from a smaller base and as a smaller part of the company's overall revenue. Amazon made $9.5 billion from advertising, a 25% increase compared Q3 2021. But the platform's ad revenue represents only 7.5% of its total net sales, in total, the company generated $127.1 billion in Q3, up 15% from Q3 last year, growth that was weaker than analysts expected. But this move shows Amazon is thinking beyond ad revenue, according to Insider Intelligence senior analyst Ross Benes. "Just keeping people subscribed to Prime, even if you have to give away music and lose money on it, is what matters most to them," Benes told Adweek. Amazon Music is the fourth go-to environment for podcast super listeners, while YouTube is the leading platform, per Insider Intelligence. Amazon's Wondery Launches True Crime Billboard and Facebook Group While incentivizing its Prime members might incline them to stay on Amazon Music (and other services where they will purchase more goods), Amazon's audiobook service Audiobooks still leads the industry, according to Benes. In September, Spotify launched an interface on the platform that let people purchase and listen to nearly 300,000 book titles. Last week, just one month after launch, Spotify cut the offering entirely after Apple's iOS update required a 30% revenue cut from platforms for in-app purchases like, boosted posts and audiobooks, the Verge reports. In terms of the company's other lines of audio business, Amazon's live-audio app that launched in March, Amp, laid off nearly half of its team Friday, affecting nearly 150 employees, reports show.

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Amazon Music Expands Ad-Free Audio Offer for Prime Members

A Podcast Previews feature lets people preview digestible soundbites from episodes

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