If memory serves, when I got Amazon Prime about 5 years ago, the songs I listened to through my Alexa’s were ad-free and I could request and play a TON of songs. Now, Alexa sprinkles in ads every 2-3 songs and when I make a specific song request, I’m always told, “Playing specific songs is only available by Amazon Unlimited.”
Did Uncle Jeff change the rules or was Alexa always this way or are my Alexa settings off?
(Everyone talks about Spotify and Pandora. I never use my mobile phone to listen to music and do NOT want to get yet another sub$cription service. I am a Boomer and aren’t familiar with other options, that’s why I listen to YouTube at my desktop.)
They ruined, outright ruined, their Amazon Music app/service. It now only shuffles music and has ads, while you have to pay more, on top of Prime, to get the full service.
Yes, Ulimited is the only way now. Extra money on top of Prime. It’s been 9 months or so, I’d say. Terrible.
We have threads periodically complaining that “paying money is so much worse than free!” But cost increases are just a result of the fact that so many services have been operating at breakeven or worse to compete for market share in online services.
Consider what you’re getting compared to pre-streaming days. You had the radio where you had constant ads and no choice of what songs you get (aside from switching stations). Or $10 a month would buy you one album to add to your collection, until the medium became obsolete tech. Now a $10 subscription to Amazon Music or Spotify or whatever gets you almost any song that has ever been recorded, on demand by voice control, ad-free.
To me, that’s a small price to pay for massive improvement in quality of service and a life free of annoying ads. The fact that last year it was free doesn’t mean that paying a few bucks a month now is terrible.
But “it was cheaper last year” doesn’t mean it’s expensive now. Of course it’s up to you to decide whether Amazon offers value for money relative to the competition, and choose something else if you prefer.
I wasn’t talking up Amazon in particular, just pointing out that in the big picture, the service and value for money we get from all online entertainment services has improved so much in the last couple of decades. And the consumer is not getting ripped off when most of these service providers do little better than break even or lose money.
They announced this as a giant upgrade, pointing out that under this new shuffle regime, they’ve opened up all the music that used to be unavailable without a subscription. And that’s true, they did, except their shuffling algorithms suck incredibly. Really the only shuffle I’ve made work at all is something like ambient, otherwise it just makes associations that make no sense.
That said, I’ve always had a $4.99 subscription on one of my devices, and that still works okay.
It does mean that Prime is offering less value ($60 less value if it’s now $5/mth to get the same service) and it’s perfectly legitimate to note that as a consumer. Or even complain about it.
If companies start off using unmanageable finances with the goal of “We’ll get 'em once they’re hooked”, as they so often do, or base their success on unrealistic annual growth every year, then I have a hard time feeling much pity for criticism leveled against them.