Amazon is giving Prime members access to 100 million songs ad-free

Amazon announced today that it has expanded its music library selection as well as podcasts, making over 100 million songs (up from 2 million) available ad-free for Prime members at no additional cost.

The move is expected to grow its subscriber base and further take on its major music streaming rivals.

"When Amazon Music first launched for Prime members, we offered an ad-free catalog of 2 million songs, which was completely unique at the time," says Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, in a statement. "We continue to innovate on behalf of our customers, and to bring even more entertainment to Prime members, on top of the convenience and value they already enjoy. We can’t wait for members to experience not only a massively expanded catalog of songs, but also the largest selection of ad-free top podcasts anywhere, at no additional cost to their membership," he added.

But while the songs will be free of ads, users would only be able to listen by shuffling artists, albums or playlists, rather than selecting songs on demand. Still, Prime members would be able to discover more new music and podcasts based on their likes; shuffle play any artist, album, or playlist in the catalog; stream a collection of All-Access playlists tailored to personalized listening preferences on demand and download them for offline listening, according to Amazon.

Music streaming giants such as Apple Music boasts over 100 million songs; Spotify boasts over 80 million songs and 4.7 million podcasts, while YouTube Music claims over 80 million songs, as of October 2022, according to company data analyzed by Techloy.

While all of these music streaming platforms offer mostly the same music content, users would need to make their choice of platform based on the price, their preference, and playlist features.