Amazon’s Prime Advantage (Premium)

“Nice job, Paul,” a note on the Amazon website greeted me this morning. “In the past year, with Amazon Prime you’ve saved more than $250 on two-day shipping and more than 40 trips to the store.”

Ah boy.

I live a life of contradiction. Which is to say that I’m a hypocrite. I routinely complain about the cost of things and exhort readers to save their money for experiences that really matter. And yet, every year, I spend an unfathomable amount of money on … stuff, for lack of a better term. I am, in many ways, the American nightmare writ large, slurping away in endless consumption.

At least I recognize the problem. And I can make an argument that my job requires me to buy technology, especially if I can’t break through certain companies’ PR nets and get them for review for free. And I do make this argument. Because no one likes to be thought of as a hypocrite.

So here’s the truth. I really do care about saving money, even if I’m not very good at it. (Thank God for my wife, who is a more than an effective counter to my dumber side.) And I really do care, very much, about finding true value. That one is all on me.

And on that note, Amazon’s Prime subscription sits right at the nexus of my contradiction.

Here is this service that lets me save money on the shipping of physical goods over the course of a year. The use of which assumes that I will buy so much stuff that paying $99 every year is actually a savings. Which, of course, it is.

As important, here is this service that provides an ever-expanding list of digital perks, added incentives for buying and then maintaining that subscription. These perks, some of which are truly impressive, really do put Amazon Prime over the top. Indeed, if you were to flip the equation here, so to speak, you may find that it makes sense to pay for Amazon Prime just for the digital services you receive. And then use the free two-day shipping on physical goods as the perk. It’s very possible that Prime makes sense either way.

However you calculate it, Amazon Prime is a great value. It is, as I wrote back in May, Amazon’s biggest advantage in its battle with other personal technology platform providers like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. And yet, I personally find myself underusing Amazon’s Prime services for some reason. Again, hypocrite.

But in keeping with my “embrace change” philosophy, I find myself virtually ambling through Amazon’s various digital services—many of which are free perks for Prime subscribers, others of which are standalone paid services—from time to time. And I feel it is helpful—for me as well as you—to review the list of services you do get, just for subscribing to Amazon Prime.

And, since this is so dense, I’m just going to go ahead and assume that this list is incomplete. That the list of perks, physical or digital, that one receives with Prime is just too voluminous for one brain to comprehend. So here are the highlights, along with some add-ons you might consider at additional costs.

Free two-day shipping. When you sign-up for Amazon Prime, two-day shipping becomes the default on the most common 50 million physical items you might purchase from the store. Given how Amazon’s distribution network has improved, this can mean one-day shipping for many. And if you need something more quickly, you can pay a bit extra, in many cases, to make that happen too. There is also release-date delivery for certain items. Depending on how much stuff you buy, this feature alone can justify the $99 annual fee. And be sure to check out Prime Now for “ultra-fast free delivery” of certain items, to certain ZIP codes. Including, in some cases, even restaurant and local store deliveries.

Prime Video. Amazon Prime Video isn’t quite to the level of Hulu, let alone Netflix, but it’s still one of the top three video services, and it’s hard to argue with the price. Prime Video is now available everywhere, too—PCs, TVs, all set-top boxes, the web, etc.—so you can stream from anywhere and download much of the content to view offline too.

Prime Music. Amazon Prime Music is, perhaps, more similar to Pandora than it is to Spotify, in that it provides a library of over 2 million songs you can stream. But it has good devices coverage—it works with Amazon’s Echo devices, too, of course—and provides offline support, curated playlists, and unlimited skips. Plus, there are no ads. If you’re just a casual music listener, this could be ideal. And if not, you can pay Amazon $8 a month more (or, for families, $15) for its Music Unlimited service, which is more like Spotify or Apple Music in that it offers access to a more complete library with tens of millions of songs. (Note that Echo owners can get Music Unlimited on those devices for just $4 per month.)

Prime Photos. Prime subscribers get unlimited cloud storage with Prime Photos, which makes this offering a no-brainer. I recommend backing up your smartphone photos to at least two services—I use Google Photos and OneDrive—and if you’re a Prime subscriber, Prime Photos should be one of them. But you don’t need a smartphone to use Prime Photos: You can copy all of your scanned and digital photos to the service from your PC or Mac, too. And you can share these photos, for free, with up to five family members. If you have an Echo Show, you can see your photos on its display. And the more analog can even use Amazon Prints to print photos or make cards, calendars, and other gifts (at additional costs).

Prime Reading. I use and recommend Amazon’s Kindle service for e-books and magazines, and Audible for audiobooks. And Prime Reading makes both better by offering free books, magazine issues, and audiobooks to Prime subscribers. Some of the offerings are pretty incredible too: I noticed this morning that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and George Orwell’s 1984 were among the free e-books, and many books span both Kindle and Audible with narration too. A no-brainer, in other words. But if you want to read even more, you could also consider Kindle Unlimited, a $10 per month service that provides access to over one million e-books and thousands of e-magazines and audiobooks. There is also a related free service called Amazon First Reads (formerly Kindle First) that provides early access to select Kindle books and, for the analog, $9.99 pricing on new hardcovers. Got kids? Amazon FreeTime Unlimited provides access to 13,000 kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games for $3 per month (for one child) or $7 per month (for a family of up to four kids).

Audible Channels. If you’re a fan of Audible, be sure to check out Audible Channels. This service debuted in early 2016 and was made available as a free perk to Prime subscribers in late 2016. It’s sort of a mash-up of audiobooks and high-quality podcasts, with exclusive audio series and curated playlists of amazing content. The only downside is that you need to be online to listen in as the content is only available via streaming.

Twitch Prime. Twitch is the most popular game streaming service in the world. And thanks to Amazon purchasing it in 2014, Prime subscribers now have access to a free perk called Twitch Prime, which provides ad-free viewing, a free channel subscription, discounts on game purchases, and more. Plus, parents can share it with their teens, too.

Those are the big ones. But there is so much more. Amazon Restaurants provides restaurant deliveries in certain areas. Echo owners can shop Amazon.com using their voice and get exclusive daily deals. Prime Pantry provides deals on household goods. Amazon Dash Prime helps Prime subscribers order commonly-needed products more easily. And Amazon Elements for Prime opens up a world of premium shopping experiences. It’s crazy how many offerings that Amazon has.

So what’s the action plan here?

I will try to do what I’ll recommend to any Prime subscriber, which is to take advantage of a much of these free services as is possible. I’ve started browsing the Prime Reading library, for example, and have already downloaded a number of items to the Kindle app on my iPad. And I’ll be looking into suspending at least Hulu so that we can binge on some of Amazon Prime’s unique content.

I’ve already gone back and forth on digital music this year, and have returned to Google Play Music after a brief push to use Spotify (which would save money since I’m already paying for a Spotify Family account). On paper, using Amazon Music Unlimited would save me a little money: It is $2 less expensive per month (or $50 less expensive per year if I pay for that year up-front). I will look into that, but I’m getting Google Play Music for free through the end of January, so that muddies the cost analysis. Plus, I really do like Google Play Music.

I already knew about Audible Channels, had, in fact, promoted it on Windows Weekly and this site. But I need to keep checking back. Staying up on these Prime perks and related Amazon services is tough, but it’s obviously worth it. All I can do, really, is resolve to keep trying. I recommend that you do as well.