Amazon Prime members can now shuffle play entire 100 million song catalog

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Amazon Prime members now have access to the company's full catalog of 100 million songs as a subscription perk at no additional cost. Before rushing off to cancel your existing streaming membership, there is one big catch you'll want to be aware of.

The full catalog is being made available ad-free but only for shuffle play. That means you can add any song or album from the catalog to a custom playlist (or listen to a curated playlist) but you can't choose the order in which tracks play.

Up to this point, Prime members have only had access to around two million tracks as part of their subscription.

For small playlists, Amazon will mix in additional tracks it thinks you might enjoy at its discretion. It sounds a lot like what Pandora's Internet radio service was in its early days.

Some All-Access playlists can be played on demand, we're told, as can a selection of podcasts. Those interested in full on-demand listening will need to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited, which is priced at $8.99 per month after a free 30-day trial. Unlimited additionally grants access to higher-quality audio files when available; Amazon says 90 million tracks are available in HD (CD quality "lossless") and over seven million are offered in Ultra HD (up to 24 bit, 192 kHz). Standard tracks are streamed at up to 320 kbps.

At $8.99 per month, Amazon's service is still cheaper than most of the competition. Tidal and Spotify currently charge $9.99 for an individual membership, but the latter recently said a price increase was coming in 2023. Apple last month increased the cost of an Apple Music individual subscription to $10.99 per month.

An Amazon Prime membership sells for $14.99 per month or $139 per year (qualifying students can get it for $7.49 per month or $69 a year) following a price increase in February.

Is Amazon's new Prime perk enough to satisfy your listening needs or do you require on demand control?

Image credit: Sebastian Ervi

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96516-amazon-prime-members-can-now-shuffle-play-entire.html

 

[punctualturn]

I was planning in canceling Prime, but this does helps in their favor.

 

[psycros]

What a nickel-and-dime operation. Who would bother when there are so many free options, not to mention Spotify?

 

[oasked]

But now you can't rewind tracks either (or play them again)... which is very frustrating.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

But now you can't rewind tracks either (or play them again)... which is very frustrating.

Nor can you downvote music you dont like.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Ultra HD- yes all those golden ear people that can instantly hear the difference to red book standard - normally when they can it's a different master or at different volumes - but when converted to std cd with good dithering - they don't want to step up to 3rd party independent testing.

Latest encoder for MP3 at 320kbps - most people couldn't distinguish 95% of music out there .

When most people on forums test codecs - they kind of cheat - they don't listen to Three Little Birds - they use a set of very well known tracks - with problem bits - so when they say you could tell the difference after 5 seconds - they knew they were listening for that part specifically - however there are some who have trained themselves so well - they can hear differences in hard to encode things .
Same if you were a professional painter you could walk in 90% of houses and see faults easily - specially with angled light - most happily know better than to look for it .

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Ultra HD- yes all those golden ear people that can instantly hear the difference to red book standard - normally when they can it's a different master or at different volumes - but when converted to std cd with good dithering - they don't want to step up to 3rd party independent testing.

Latest encoder for MP3 at 320kbps - most people couldn't distinguish 95% of music out there .

When most people on forums test codecs - they kind of cheat - they don't listen to Three Little Birds - they use a set of very well known tracks - with problem bits - so when they say you could tell the difference after 5 seconds - they knew they were listening for that part specifically - however there are some who have trained themselves so well - they can hear differences in hard to encode things .
Same if you were a professional painter you could walk in 90% of houses and see faults easily - specially with angled light - most happily know better than to look for it .

Or maybe there are people out there with better hearing then you.

 

[Zinixo]

And in the process destroyed my routine I had setup. Also why the f do I want to hear Alexa yacking about how many songs I can now play when I request one. just shut up and play what I requested.

 

[Vrmithrax]

What complete crap. I've used Prime Music player in my car for years, have a big playlist of titles downloaded (including many I purchased outright), and this new system has completely negated the positive points that make Prime my go-to choice. It even seems to limit the number of skips in your offline downloaded content, including your purchased music. And, with this "shuffle fill in" system, it seems to be connecting and streaming even when you are working with offline downloaded playlists, which defeats the whole purpose of having that content downloaded in the first place.

Pretty obvious it's a cash grab to force you to choose Prime Unlimited to get back the basic functionality that has been in the system for years. Pathetic.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Or maybe there are people out there with better hearing then you.

You know what's a laugh - lots of audio review people are old white males 50 plus - so All of them have lost the top end - I tested my ears about a month ago - online - one ear is 12 years younger than my age the other 11 years .

I stand by my basic claims
1) you can train your yourself to hear known faults in different codecs
( however all codecs are pretty good now )
2) No large scale 3rd party test has shown people can tell difference between HiRes and Redbook

A lot of people with exceptional senses - smell/hearing etc know it's a double edge sword - more fuzzy, more dislikes.
Good Chefs are not supertasters - they appeal to the masses - not people who get overwhelmed by strong flavours

I have a very good audio system and headphones + dac for PC .

I can respect reviews that say subtle difference , or nice highs etc - plus certain speakers will be superior in certain aspects eg speed ( layman's terms ) , range etc

But when suddenly their old system is blown away by some new fangled thing - like lifting the veil - hearing things I never heard blah blah blah - It doesn't pass the sniff test

When some amazing power conditioner , or cables will make the system just so much better - yeah why didn't the makers of those $30000 mono amps , or $100 000 speakers use that stuff? - does not compute.

Even when young - all the rubbish about unit holding the separates making huge differences - or speaker stand that was $1000 was so much better - when all it had to do was be rigid and dampen feedback sound/vibrations .
In same mags adverts for BMW car systems sounding great - as you drive around over bumps - with lots electrical/magnetic contamination from under the hood .

End of day listen to music not your tools .

I listen to a wide range of music - but not heavy dense electronic music - which is harder to encode.

I do visit audio forums once and awhile - most people admit it's peace of mind to go higher.

My hearing like yours will only get worse