Amazon Rolls Out New Perk for Prime Members as Subscription Growth Slows
The strategic move comes during a period of fierce competition with retail rivals like Walmart.
By Amanda Breen •
Although Amazon's Prime subscription service primarily attracts members with its fast and free shipping, it boasts a range of other offerings too — and just added another to the list.
Amazon announced last week that it is broadening the free tier of its music-streaming service, Amazon Music, to include tens of millions of ad-free songs for its subscribers, per The Wall Street Journal — a move that comes during a time of fierce competition and slowing growth.
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The tech giant has stated it has more than 200 million Prime members worldwide. Annual growth in Prime subscriptions in the U.S. was once nearly 20%, but that figure is expected to slump to just 2% by 2025, according to Insider Intelligence.
The slowdown comes at a time of more subscription competition than ever before. In 2020, Walmart unveiled its membership service, giving customers free shipping on tens of thousands of items. Today, Walmart+ has an estimated 11 million members, per CNBC.
Walmart has also attempted to sweeten the bargain, throwing in a Paramount+ subscription earlier this year.
It appears Amazon is hitting back by expanding its Prime members' music catalogs.
"We continue to invest in Prime," Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, told WSJ. "Music is only the latest example of continued investment ... The No. 1 thing we heard from members was, 'I want more music.' So we figured out in the service, with the publishers, how to make that possible."
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Amazon.com, Inc. is down 48% year over year.
