Amazon today announced that its Alexa customers now have access to a free, ad-supported version of Amazon Music. The news closely follows a similar announcement from Google, which is providing a free, ad-supported version of YouTube Music to users of Google Home and other Assistant-powered smart speakers.  

“Beginning today, customers in the U.S. who do not yet have a Prime membership or a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited will now be able to listen to an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations for free with Amazon Music on compatible Alexa-enabled devices,” an Amazon announcement notes. “  

As you might expect, this new Amazon Music tier is a bit more limited than the version that Amazon Prime users get as part of their membership: You can start music playing based on a song, artist, era, or genre only and here “some of Amazon Music’s top global playlists.” 

Those who prefer to listen to music on-demand—that is, pull up any song, album, artist, or whatever—can pay for Amazon Prime (which gives you access to Amazon Music) or Amazon Music Unlimited.  

Tagged with Amazon Alexa, Amazon Echo