Amazon Gives Prime Members Access to More Music, Podcasts

Amazon expanded the menu for Prime members, announcing Tuesday they have access via Amazon Music to 100 million songs -- up from 2 million -- in shuffle mode, ad-free and at no additional cost to their membership. The company raised the price of a Prime membership in February to $14.99 a month from $12.99, or $139 a year, from $119. Users can shuffle play any artist, album or playlist, plus stream a selection of All-Access playlists on demand, it said. Prime members can also access what Amazon said is the largest catalog of “ad-free top podcasts," plus ones premiering globally exclusively on Amazon Music. The streaming audio service added a Podcast Previews feature, allowing listeners to sample a “soundbite” from a podcast episode to make it easier to discover new content. Amazon Music Unlimited ($8.99 a month) steps up users to on-demand access to albums, playlists and over 100 million songs in HD, along with songs in Ultra HD and spatial audio.