Why You Might Want To Drop Your Spotify Subscription If You Pay For Amazon Prime

From watching TV shows and movies to listening to music and podcasts, streaming services have become a big part of our lives. Among the streaming giants, Spotify stands out as the most popular platform for music, with 263 million premium subscribers across the globe, according to Statista. If you count yourself among that number, you're likely satisfied with what the service has to offer, including features like AI playlists for turning creative ideas into custom mixes and real-time jam sessions for listening to your favorite tunes with friends. Spotify has become such a staple of many of our lives that we pay the subscription fee without a second thought, even though there are many cheaper alternatives to Spotify Premium that might be worthy of our attention.

Indeed, one of those alternatives might be included in a service you're already paying for. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you're likely familiar with many of the perks that come with an Amazon Prime subscription. However, you may have overlooked one that could make your Spotify membership feel redundant: Amazon Music. This streaming music service is free for Prime members, allowing them to listen to 100 million songs ad-free as well as podcasts, and thousands of playlists and stations. Upgrading to Amazon Music Unlimited, which comes at a discounted price for Prime members, gets you even more features, including high-definition audio and offline listening. Given all that it offers, it might not make sense to keep paying for both services — Amazon Music might be all you need.

If you're a casual listener, Amazon Music may be enough for your everyday music listening needs, and many of its features go head to head with what Spotify offers. For example, you can use Amazon Music's AI playlist generator (currently in beta), Maestro, to use prompts to create personalized playlists. Perhaps most importantly, you get access to a huge catalog of over 100 million tracks in shuffle mode, and if you're not sure what you want to listen to, you can tune into one of the many All-Access Playlists available. 

All-Access Playlists can be downloaded for offline listening and have no skip limits. Besides these playlists, as a Prime member, you can shuffle through songs by artist, album, genre, and more, but you won't have full control over what plays next. Prime members can also access what Amazon says is the largest catalog of top podcasts without any ads. If you have an Amazon Echo smart speaker, you can use Alexa voice commands to play music. While Amazon Music is a decent perk, it comes with several limitations that might make it less appealing to Spotify Premium subscribers.

For one, you can't pick and choose what songs you listen to outside of the All-Access Playlists. Instead, you're limited to shuffle listening. Also, beyond All-Access Playlists, you won't be able to download songs for offline listening.

Amazon Music makes the most sense if you're someone who doesn't use all of Spotify's Premium capabilities, like on-demand playback, no shuffle limitations, or the included audiobooks. For example, if you mainly listen to Spotify playlists in the background while at work or studying and aren't picky about choosing specific songs, Amazon Music might be enough for you, with the added bonus of not having to pay for an extra subscription.

That being said, even if you want more from a music service than what Amazon Music offers, you don't necessarily have to stick with Spotify. As a Prime member, you get Amazon Music Unlimited at a discounted price of $10.99 per month or $109 for an annual subscription, which is slightly cheaper than Spotify Premium, which costs $11.99 per month. If you upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited, you'll find it's pretty similar to Spotify Premium. It has on-demand playback, unlimited skips, and offline listening.

With an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, you get to listen to one audiobook per month, while with Spotify Premium, you get 15 hours of audiobook playback, giving it a slight edge if you're a bibliophile. However, if you're an audiophile, Amazon Unlimited's high-definition (HD) and ultra-high-definition (Ultra HD) audio quality, which exceeds what Spotify offers, may be enough to win you over. If you're already paying for Prime, Amazon's music offerings — either free or upgraded — might be enough to justify dropping your Spotify Premium subscription.