Amazon Music Now Has 55 Million Active Users

Amazon has over 55 million active users across its six different Music service tiers, “nearly all” of whom are paying subscribers.

The milestone was reported exclusively in The Financial Times—I can’t find another source for this information, including from Amazon itself—and it shatters the previous usage milestones that the firm provided. For example, in July 2019, we learned that Amazon Music was growing at a much faster clip than Spotify and Apple Music, the market leaders, and had, at the time, about 32 million subscribers. And previous to that, eMarketer said that it expected Amazon Music to close out 2019 with about 35 million subscribers.

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That prediction was way off the mark: Amazon Music has 55 million active users overall, and while some are using the free tier, most of them are paying subscribers. In fact, its most successful offering is its premium Amazon Music Unlimited service.

“Amazon doesn’t talk numbers that much,” Amazon’s Steve Boom told the publication. “We felt like getting to this level of scale was something worth talking about.”

He’s right. With 55 million users, Amazon is poised to overtake Apple Music and its 60 million subscribers to become the second-biggest music streaming service in the world, behind only Spotify, which reported having 113 million paying subscribers and 248 million total monthly users last September.

While much of Amazon’s success surely comes from its ubiquitous online presence and successful Prime service, Mr. Boom credits it on the company’s diverse set of offerings, each of which is designed to reach different classes of customers. It also aggressively undercuts its competitors on pricing: Its service that competes most directly with Spotify and Apple Music costs just $8 per month for those with Prime accounts, compared to $10 for those services. And people who own an Amazon Echo smart speaker pay as little as $4 per month.

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Conversation 17 comments

  • Daekar

    22 January, 2020 - 11:48 am

    <p>I think the devil is in the details here. The definition a user is critical, especially differentiating between those that just have a Prime account and those who pay for unlimited. </p>

    • BenTessier

      Premium Member
      22 January, 2020 - 2:59 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#515065">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>I Agree. I am a prime subscriber and i use Prime Video a lot but I never looked at Prime Music except maybe at the beginning. Never opened it since. </p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        23 January, 2020 - 8:33 am

        Are you worried that you’re being counted among that service’s active users? 🙂

        • mestiphal

          27 January, 2020 - 3:46 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#515270">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>I mean, maybe it all depends on how they count their user base? I tried Spotify&nbsp;, didn't like their premade playlists, and moved to Google Music. I never actually cancelled or closed my free Spotify account, so they could very well be counting me as one of their "active" users</p>

    • jgraebner

      Premium Member
      22 January, 2020 - 5:55 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#515065">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>I assume what Paul is referring to as the "free tier" is Prime Music, right? I don't think they have a completely free tier.</p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        23 January, 2020 - 8:28 am

        That’s how The Financial Times “referred” to it.

  • dspeterson

    Premium Member
    22 January, 2020 - 11:48 am

    <p>Im wondering how many folks have subscriptions to multiple services. I personally use/prefer Spotify, but my wife hates Spotify and prefers Apple Music and the kiddos mainly listen to stuff via our Echos which ultimately work best with Amazon Music, so we’ve got all 3.</p>

    • mrdrwest

      22 January, 2020 - 4:59 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#515066">In reply to dspeterson:</a></em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Nickled. And dimed.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • skolvikings

      22 January, 2020 - 5:45 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#515066">In reply to dspeterson:</a></em></blockquote><p>I've been a Spotify customer since they launched in the USA. Love it and have no plans to switch. The kids love it too and use it on their phones and Chromebooks at school (Spotify has a PWA). But then we went all in on Echo speakers, and with the Spotify integration or using Amazon Prime Music, it was restricted to a single speaker at a time. The kids were fighting. The wife wasn't happy. So sigh, we also subscribed to Amazon Music Unlimited to get unlimited streams on our Echo speakers. Then I recently switched to Verizon Unlimited and get Apple Music for free. So yeah, I have all three of the major music streaming services. At least I don't pay for Apple Music, which is good, because I don't particularly care for it and don't use it. But I have it.</p>

  • Patrick3D

    22 January, 2020 - 12:04 pm

    <p>Right now they've got the most complete ecosystem and it all works (almost) flawlessly. Music, movies, TV, toilet paper, computer parts, whatever you need they've got. The only thing I don't care for from them is groceries. There is rarely a night that goes by that I don't use an Echo Dot and ask Alexa to turn off the lights (Kasa bulbs bought on Amazon) and play various music.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    22 January, 2020 - 12:22 pm

    <p>If you are one of the millions of people who got an Echo for cheap or as a gift, that entry-level $4 plan for a single speaker is such a low hurdle that it is kind of a no-brainer if you're not already subscribed to a competing service.</p>

  • mrdrwest

    22 January, 2020 - 4:57 pm

    <p>It took me a minute to realize why there was no Spotify app for the Amazon Firestick 4K.</p>

    • skolvikings

      22 January, 2020 - 5:42 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#515155">In reply to mrdrwest:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes there is. I have it installed on mine.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      23 January, 2020 - 8:31 am

      Because that’s a video dongle, probably.

  • graham_wilton

    23 January, 2020 - 1:27 am

    <p>I moved from Tidal HD music subscription to Amazon HD last year based on it being half the price. The android app is pretty bad, you cannot sort by album artist, just artist, so everytime you add a song to a play list that artist gets added to the sort by artist. It's really hard to find music and I've found myself just listening to my old and known favourite albums because I just can't see the wood for the trees. </p><p><br></p><p>It's the worst music service I've used (Tidal, Qobiz, Spotify, Apple Music) but it's cheap! </p>

  • solomonrex

    23 January, 2020 - 12:51 pm

    <p>This is hardly a surprise, since they've been handing out free three month trials during the busiest shopping season of the year and popping up ads at least once a day for the service. If they do pull ahead, it will be short lived.</p>

  • glenn8878

    23 January, 2020 - 2:12 pm

    <p>I like free but Prime music and video are barebones. Prime video has one gem: The Boys. Prime music isn't better than free Pandora, but at least I can request a song on Echo Dot and it mostly gives it to me.</p>

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