Amazon Prime Music

Smaug

Super Member
(I've got no affiliation to Amazon, by the way)

I'm liking this a LOT more than I thought I would.

Here's how it works:

  1. Sign up for Amazon Prime through your Amazon account
  2. Prime Music is one of the benefits*
  3. Download the Prime Music app for your smart phone, iPod, tablet, etc
  4. You can also use the interface built into Amazon's website. There's also apps for streaming players, like Roku. (though through Roku, I can only play music I've purchased, rather than streaming everything available)
  5. Anything available on Prime Music, you can download in MP3 format, and it is covered by the annual fee.
  6. Music that you purchase from Amazon is available from any device, anywhere. So now, for example, I'm at work streaming a Beethoven piano sonata through my iPhone w/headphones as I work. In my car, I can hook up my iPhone to my car stereo and listen there. At home, I can listen to music I've purchased through the Roku box in my home system.
  7. What it lacks in lossless fidelity, it makes up for in convenience.

The iPhone app's interface is great. The only thing it lacks is a way to just look for what whole albums are available in Prime Music. You can do that, but you have to find a song first by some other means, then use a menu pull-down to select 'view album'. Then, you can easily download the whole album.

I can make personalized playlists from the music that's available everywhere.

My absolute favorite stuff I'll probably still buy on CD, just to have the HiFi version of it for home listening.


*Other benefits
  • Free 2-day shipping on Prime-eligible merchandise
  • Free streaming of Prime-eligible movies. You won't typically find something you're specifically looking for here, but there's always something new that you'll like to watch.
  • Free online storage of your photo library. (I use that as a form of back-up)
  • Some worthless benefits that I forget at the moment
 
Wife has Amazon Prime, I've never once benefited from it, nor her, I think.

I'll be investigating this, thanks for posting this.
 
I've been a fan of Amazon Prime for years. Their streaming TV/Movies and Music are first rate.

For your PRIME membership, you get thousands of TV/Movies INCLUDED for no extra cost. This is fantastic if you have an Amazon Fire Stick TV (HDMI) device. I watch more Prime TV than I do broadcast/cable. Prime TV also has premiums like HBO NOW if you want to subscribe, but I stick to the "Free-Included With Prime" stuff. You'd be amazed at what is included for your Prime membership. Most of the past HBO Series hows are free to stream for Prime, as well as thousands of other TV shows and Movies. No complaints. You can also stream to your Web Browser if you don't want to get a Fire Stick or Fire TV appliance.

MUSIC:
I ripped my entire CD Collection to Amazon Prime. That costs me and additional 25 bucks a year, but I can handle that. I ripped over 1200 albums, so they are available via Amazon Prime Music Stream to my Phone or my Amazon Echo or my Fire Stick TV or my laptop via a web browser.
INCLUDED IN PRIME are thousands of music albums for no charge. You just never know what will be included that you don't have to pay for. Many Jazz selection, Classical, Rock, Country and Pop. You can download any Prime music selection you want for playing offline. Just last week I found Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" completely free and included with Prime. I downloaded it to my SD card for listening anytime. I've also listened to about 500 Jazz albums for free-Included With Prime. BTW, you can also download Prime TV/Movies for viewing later offline if, for example, you are taking a long flight and want to watch a few movies.
The streaming rate is decent, nominal at 256 AAC. That's plenty of fidelity for all but the most critical listeners, and on par with Spotify or Apple Music.
You can only stream to your phone via an Amazon Prime Music App and they are only available for iOS or Android. No Windows Phones or BlackBerry. You can also stream Prime Movies to your iOS or Droid but you need the Amazon Fire TV App.

Prime Music and Prime TV/Movies is the main reason I do Prime. The 2 day shipping is nice, but not the driving factor for me.
 
Do you get to keep the songs you download even after your Prime membership is canceled/expired? I bet it's like Playstation Plus, where you get free games but can't use them unless you remain a member--so they're not really "yours," you're just renting them, essentially, in perpetuity.
 
Do you get to keep the songs you download even after your Prime membership is canceled/expired? I bet it's like Playstation Plus, where you get free games but can't use them unless you remain a member--so they're not really "yours," you're just renting them, essentially, in perpetuity.

I am quite certain that the ability to download MP3s is limited to music you have purchased. The other offline downloads would eventually be disabled if you drop PRIME. With no DRM capabilities for MP3 files it really couldn't work any other way. One nice feature of Amazon music is that the MP3 downloads are included with every music purchase including vinyl and CDs.

I also enjoy the Prime Music "Stations" and "Playlists". It is a nice way to find new music.
 
Do you get to keep the songs you download even after your Prime membership is canceled/expired? I bet it's like Playstation Plus, where you get free games but can't use them unless you remain a member--so they're not really "yours," you're just renting them, essentially, in perpetuity.

Easily solvable if you really want these tunes.

Fire up Cool Edit or any of a billion free programs, play them, record them, track them up if you like.

But then again, if you haven't paid for them, I guess that is a bad thing to do.
 
I'm a fan also... getting ready for my second year of subscribing and what's not to like? Lots of great free album downloads and streaming video on multiple devices, free two-day shipping; a great bargain for $99/year.
 
Another fan here :thmbsp:
Signed up earlier this year for the free 2-day shipping so the music and video was a bonus. I mostly stream music through my iPhone and occasionally stream video that is mirrored to Apple TV.

Roger
 
I just wrote another thread before I saw this one, so I deleted it. What I said was how impressed I was by the fidelity of the streaming music from Amazon! It's quite good, and the well-known good recordings seem to maintain their fidelity as well, e.g., most Dire Straits, which is free to stream. Very happy they added this to Prime.
 
About #5, it's only streamable. You can download purchased music from Amazon (called Autorip) to your device. Just an FYI about Autorip, it's only if you purchase from Amazon, not third party sellers which are usually cheaper.

It's amazing how fast some music comes to Prime. I was going to buy the new Carried Underwood Storyteller CD but since they had it on Prime I used that. It's really nice to be able to stream off multiple devices, I have an Amazon Fire phone, two notebooks, and an Amazon Echo. The Fire phone really has good sound quality compared to the two notebooks.

Another thing about Prime is you can let other family members use your account to watch movies or read books as I don't use those functions myself. My wife figured out how to do this so don't ask me how LOL.
 
I've had prime music for a year and pay for the family plan. After getting used to the layout and interface I ditched my Pandora account for this. If you pay for the extra you can download any and everything for offline use and the sound is spot on for everyone but the biggest audiophiles. I have fire devices and benefit from having a box plugged into my surround sound which makes my rock almost live. Highly recommend to anyone
 
I've been a Prime subscriber for years and have been taking advantage of the movie streaming perk for some time, but for whatever reason I just started using their Prime Music service. So far so good. The streaming quality seems very good, I listened to the "Bossa Nova" station while making/eating dinner this evening.
 
Yea you can definitely download the music from Prime to use offline. But it's not a normal mp3. It's only accessible via the app, and only if you can access the internet. It just needs to check your membership is still valid, and you're good. But once your membership is canceled it doesn't work anymore. Don't know how they do it. But I've done all of this myself, including losing all the downloads because we let it run out. And it wasn't there when we renewed. You have to download them again. It's very fast though. If your internet is capable.
 
If you have two computers with audio in/out, you can record on computer #2 what you have outputted from computer #1. A good DAC or two might keep the fidelity good
 
Looks like I spoke too soon...have a new 4k Fire stick to go with the Music HD and I have sped up/studdering that I didn't have on the old stick and with Unlimited. Plus, you have to re-download all albums again in HD if they're to be played in HD. The sound is good though and theres a new look now thats a big step up from the old Am Music look/layout.
 
Amazon needs to make HD easier to listen to. No Ubuntu support at all. The Alexa cubes need an audio out besides the HDMI. The only way I found to listen to Amazon HD is through my wife's Windowa laptop with usb out to DAC.
 
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