'Amazon Music Officially Sucks Now': Prime Members Are Frustrated By the Streaming Service's Overhaul Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to its catalog to meet customer demand — but now subscribers are furious about additional changes.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Although Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to its catalog in a bid to keep and draw Prime subscribers, many customers aren't satisfied.
That's because the tech giant has also made other major changes to its music streaming service. Now, Prime members can only listen to individual songs if they pay $9 per month for Amazon Music Unlimited, Insider reported — and many people turned to Twitter to voice their frustration.
Related: Amazon Rolls Out New Perk for Prime Subscription Members
Previously, Prime members could search for and stream nearly two million songs and also download songs for offline listening. But that option is no longer available unless users upgrade to Amazon Music's unlimited plan.
"The No. 1 thing we heard from members was, 'I want more music,'" Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. "So we figured out in the service, with the publishers, how to make that possible."
Naturally, the switch-up has elicited some less-than-impressed reactions on Twitter.
Amazon music offially sucks now. Thanks for nothing.
— Troy Mollin (@tdm9) November 1, 2022
Dear Amazon Music Prime: this new update where I can't download albums and can only shuffle play sucks. If I wanted another version of Spotify, I would just use Spotify. You've destroyed what I loved about your app.
— Lynann (@LSully9) November 3, 2022
@amazon please bring back the old Prime Music. Loved listening to albums and being able to trust my kids with music. Amazon Music kept us subscribed, but shuffle and skip limits ruined it. Ugh! We're cancelling Prime if this isn't fixed.
— Ashley Franz (@AshleyFranz9) November 6, 2022
Amazon Music had 55 million subscribers as of 2020, the last time it released statistics about its subscriber numbers, though its competitors Apple Music and Spotify continue to outperform its platform. Apple Music has an estimated 78 million users as of June 2021, according to Statista, and Spotify has 188 million premium subscribers as of the second quarter of 2022.
