What music service is less than $3.33 a month? I wan't to drop Spotify and switch to that!
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Amazon May Add Streaming Music to Prime Service
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What music service is less than $3.33 a month? I wan't to drop Spotify and switch to that!
Well, that's exactly what they've just done in the UK.
Prime has gone up from £50 to £80 and now includes 'Prime instant video' - which would be OK for free but contains pretty much nothing I'd choose to pay for and isn't available on my "ancient" 2010 Smart TV or by (newer) Panasonic BD player. So its effectively £30 extra for next-day delivery (which is what you get with Prime in the UK).
I'm ok until I'm up for renewal in October - then I'll have a hard think as to whether I'm going to need £70 worth of next day deliveries in a year. By then I'll have re-watched all the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' episodes I can stand
Thing is, its not a simple "#of amazon orders per year * average delivery cost" equation:
1. next day delivery is nice if you get it at a bargain price, but its not a must for everything.
2. I'm increasingly moving to eBooks, music and software downloads - and have been tending to give gift vouchers (which can be done all-elecronically) rather than physical goods as presents. That reduces the need for delivery.
3. Prime doesn't cover a lot of Amazon Marketplace stuff.
I hope Amazon's bean counters have done their sums right - as long as I'm paying for Prime, Amazon is going to be my first choice for online shopping. If I drop Prime I'll probably shop around more. Its not just the £50/year they'll lose.
The free video under prime membership is not even close to Netflix. Prime membership is only worth it for the free two day shipping. Unless you order a lot of small orders and need the two day shipping, Prime membership is not really worth it (Orders over $35 are shipped free with standard shipping without Amazon Prime).
Unless they plan on adding Spotify type cost to the prime membership, it will be Pandora / Apple radio like.
For my family - even if Prime was $129 - we would still come out ahead per year on shipping. And that's not including free books, video streaming and the potential music streaming.
I guess it will depend on how often you order from Amazon. I can understand the frustration and complaints if it goes up $40 - especially if you don't use the added services. But on the flip side - if you're still benefiting on the shipping side, so what?
I guess it will depend on how often you order from Amazon. I can understand the frustration and complaints if it goes up $40 - especially if you don't use the added services. But on the flip side - if you're still benefiting on the shipping side, so what?
Exactly!
I tried both over the past few years, and I have no bias towards either one. It's just that Netflix is so much better than Amazon, it's not even funny. To compare them is ridiculous, it's like comparing a Six Flags to Disney World. People who say Amazon is better, or even close, must either (a) not use the services or (b) are Amazon fanboys.
How about Amazon get rid of it's free streaming and forget and music entirely and keep the price of prime the same (referring to the expected price increase)/lowering it?
Or make two tiers - one for shipping only and the other including streaming.
Or make two tiers - one for shipping only and the other including streaming.
Pandora - free
iTunes Radio - free or $25/yr
Radio - free
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Yet for $80 you are getting free 2 day shipping and videos. Doesn't seem like good math to me.
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Exactly - i probably watched on average 2 movies a month but I ship at least 15-20 things monthly.
I have Amazon Prime. But I don't know where the free video streaming is. All I can find available for streaming (while logged in) is rental options for $3.99 or so. Wtf is the point of that?
Knowing their strategy there, what will the music streaming look like? Rent each song for $1.99 / day? Go home Amazon, you're drunk.
Knowing their strategy there, what will the music streaming look like? Rent each song for $1.99 / day? Go home Amazon, you're drunk.
My point is, at $80 I'll do it. But over $100 I won't. I rather just wait. None of the stuff I ordered I actually needed in 2 days anyway.
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Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, all Macs, your TV using HDMI, etc.. So many ways to watch iTunes movies.
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Well, that's exactly what they've just done in the UK.
Prime has gone up from £50 to £80 and now includes 'Prime instant video' - which would be OK for free but contains pretty much nothing I'd choose to pay for and isn't available on my "ancient" 2010 Smart TV or by (newer) Panasonic BD player. So its effectively £30 extra for next-day delivery (which is what you get with Prime in the UK).
I'm ok until I'm up for renewal in October - then I'll have a hard think as to whether I'm going to need £70 worth of next day deliveries in a year. By then I'll have re-watched all the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' episodes I can stand
Thing is, its not a simple "#of amazon orders per year * average delivery cost" equation:
1. next day delivery is nice if you get it at a bargain price, but its not a must for everything.
2. I'm increasingly moving to eBooks, music and software downloads - and have been tending to give gift vouchers (which can be done all-elecronically) rather than physical goods as presents. That reduces the need for delivery.
3. Prime doesn't cover a lot of Amazon Marketplace stuff.
I hope Amazon's bean counters have done their sums right - as long as I'm paying for Prime, Amazon is going to be my first choice for online shopping. If I drop Prime I'll probably shop around more. Its not just the £50/year they'll lose.
Agreed - having bought almost everything I need for my place last year, I'm finding it very difficult to have a reason to maintain my subscription.
There's nothing that I need so urgent and half the times, I get it in 3-4 days anyway with standard shipping or free shipping.
For me to stay on the subscription at this point, Amazon would have to offer next day shipping free and add a ton of coupons, discounts, and freebies.
I get free next day shipping with Zappos. So if I need clothes or something fast, I will go to Zappos over Amazon. Best Buy has local pickup. Newegg delivers next day because I'm nearby their shipping center.
Amazon needs to see these competitors as threats and update their service. And I'm not paying no subscription to get it quicker!
I've been a Prime member for several years now and I really like the service. I remember the content that Amazon first started out with and what they have now is just night and day. They are now featuring original content as well.
I read a rumor that Amazon may raise the rate of Prime next year somewhere around $120 /yr. I was going to drop it as i'm winding down my Amazon purchases. But if they can add streaming music and I could listen to it thru their Kindle Fire tabs which have awesome audio, I may reconsider.
I read a rumor that Amazon may raise the rate of Prime next year somewhere around $120 /yr. I was going to drop it as i'm winding down my Amazon purchases. But if they can add streaming music and I could listen to it thru their Kindle Fire tabs which have awesome audio, I may reconsider.
You are talking about Amazon Instant video which most people agree is good. By comparison, the free video you get through amazon prime is terrible. If you want the good video, even though you are a prime member, you have to pay for it.
You don't get that if you pay the $25 / year for iTunes match. I agree with you and wouldn't bother with the free iTunes radio
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Yes really. Netflix catalog is betterrrr and while I think Amazons' catalog is sufficient for me, the reality is that is not as good, close though. Which is why the shipping + ok programming makes sense. But, for me to pay an extra $20-40 just to stream music is ridiculous. There are many free options for music, why can't they either make theirs free w/ ads like others or just not try to get into that area at all and leave things as is. It will not be my 'loss' if they increase the charge $20-40 it will be my gain. Amazons pricing for stuff lately has been almost or same to brick & mortar stores.
This is a kick in the face for those of us who use Amazon Cloud Player. I hope they don't discontinue that.
But the increase in price is/won't be because of music streaming. At least I don't think so. Amazon has long been rumored to be increasing the price of PRIME. It would actually be smarter to increase the price and then add streaming so people perceive more value than to do it at the same time where people can complain over not wanting the music part.
40 bucks isn't that serious. That would make it 120 per year which is 10 a month for free 2 day shipping, unlimited access to the video library (with stuff that isn't on Netflix) AND music?
Spotify charges 10 a month for the music alone.
How is it more expensive?
Spotify charges 10 a month for the music alone.
How is it more expensive?
No, it's raising prices to take less of a hit on shipping, and tossing in the music as an "I'm sorry".
I can't say how Amazon allocates money received from Prime membership payments, but I suspect the entire program has been a loss leader from the start in hope of getting people to order more stuff. These days everyone offers free shipping and many of Amazon's less expensive items are "add on" these days so only ship Prime if your order is $25 or more. The only shipping benefit to Prime is that Amazon processes it in one day. 99% of my Prime packages ship ground UPS or that awful Lasership. Rarely does anything need to ship 2day UPS Air.
But lets take your argument. UPS and FedEx routinely raises rates 5% annually. If Amazon is trying to recoup more shipping costs then they could just pass on the UPS & FedEx rate increases. So $79+5% = $83 -- round it up to $85. It could also exempt large, heavy, low profit items like metal shelving or unassembled furniture. Plenty of other ways to re-adjust the program w/o socking it to customers or piling on bloat to justify a very large (by%) cost increase that ultimately hurts Amazon b/c it WILL result in lower sales volume.
Amazon will take a big hit each time it raises the prime membership cost. I believe that they consider it better for a one time big increase rather than angering customers every year with a smaller ones. Amazon can also make the customers feel better by telling them that they are now supplying a free music streaming service for the increased cost.
For many items, that's true. The individual warehouses are for the most common items people order so they still need to ship 2nd day air some items.
Note - Look at everything Amazon sells. Besides the room it would take in a satellite warehouse, Amazon would go broke keeping such a large inventory in all the satellite warehouses. It's always a trade off between shipping cost and having the needed inventory at a location.
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OP said he would "drop" Spotify if you could point out a service that does the same thing for $3.33 a month or less. He must be talking about the paid Spotify service (it wouldn't really make sense to "drop" a free service).
That being said, I've used iTunes Radio, Pandora, and Radio and, unless I'm missing something somewhere, I've never been able to figure out how to play individually selected tracks on demand (and skip songs an unlimited number of times on the radio features like you can with a paid Spotify account) rather than being forced to listen through preselected music.
If you can show me how to do all of that without ads on those free services, I will just start mailing you the $3.33 a month.