Community Chat

[Marp2]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amazon is launching a music streaming service for its Prime members, adding yet another freebie to its popular free-shipping plan ahead of the expected unveiling of its first smartphone next week.

Starting Thursday, Amazon.com Inc. will offer more than a million tracks for ad-free streaming and download to Kindle Fire tablets as well as to computers and the Amazon Music app for Apple and Android devices. The service, called Prime Music, is likely to be integrated with an Amazon smartphone expected to be previewed on Wednesday.

People who pay $99 a year for Prime can listen to tens of thousands of albums from artists including Beyonce, The Lumineers and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for no extra cost. By adding music, Amazon is hoping to hook new customers and retain existing ones on its Prime free-shipping plan, which also allows subscribers to watch streams of movies and TV shows and gives Kindle owners a library of books they can borrow once a month.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20140612/us-amazon-music-1f7881761d.html

[PuppyBreath]

It is so good. Just keeps getting better. Marketing madness. Love it.

[gardenman]

For the $99 you get a lot. Free shipping, a free book each month to keep forever using their new Kindle First feature, a free borrowed book each month, free video streaming of thousands of shows/movies, and now free music streaming. It's kind of hard to beat Amazon Prime.

[Lavinia_1]

I love amazon and if you are a student you pay half price for prime . . . There's something called amazon mom but I am not a mom so I assume I don't qualify but maybe some you moms do!

[tansy]

The borrowed book is tempting. I am ordering more often than I used to so it might be worth it.

[adelle38]

On 6/12/2014 tansy said: The borrowed book is tempting. I am ordering more often than I used to so it might be worth it.

The selection of books you can borrow is very limited. They are almost never by well known authors or best sellers. I wouldn't let this be the deciding factor. I just let my Prime membership drive because of the price increase and because I've been through almost all of the streaming videos that interest me. If they offer me a deal to rejoin, I'll consider it.

[tansy]

Thanks, adelle. I've been looking for a comprehensive list of titles available.

[adelle38]

On 6/12/2014 tansy said: Thanks, adelle. I've been looking for a comprehensive list of titles available.

I don't think you'll find one. If you look up an individual title in Kindle and it has Prime next to it you can borrow it. I was never able to find a list. Most of the titles can be purchased for under $3.00 and there seem to be a lot of obscure titles and hack biographies. When I borrowed it was always for the calendar month whether I borrowed on the 2nd or the 22nd of the month.

[tansy]

It's sounding less and less appealing -- lol. Thanks for the info.

[gardenman]

You can find lists of the books available from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library right on your Kindle. How you get there depends on which Kindle or device you're using to access the lists. On my Kindle Keyboard, you start out with Menu/Shop in Kindle Store/Browse/See All Categories, then at the bottom is the "Kindle Owners' Lending Library." That takes you to a list of the bestselling books, but at the top right you can click on "View Subcategories" to narrow the search down. As I type this there are 572,013 books listed as being part of the Kindle Owners Lending Library. There are a lot of books available.

The Kindle Fire works largely the same way. You start out with Books/Store then on the right there's a list of things and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library is at the bottom of the list. The way you get there with each Kindle varies a bit but the lists are there and sortable in whatever way you wish. It's a very good extra for Kindle owners who are Prime subscribers.