What’s happened to Amazon Music?
Discussion
I’m not a huge user of Amazon music but it comes free with Prime and was handy to listen to a range of music in the car or more generally without ads.
The latest update gives access to 100 million songs (opposed to the previous 2 million) to be on tier with the premium offering but without the ability to listen to a specific song. It now plays a shuffled playlist of similar songs with pot luck if you get what you want.
Quite disappointed in this change as you can’t actually listen to the music you want without paying £10.99 a month. Sorry, just needed a bit of a rant. Yes, I suppose this is better for those who like to listen to random shuffled music but can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a step backwards.
The latest update gives access to 100 million songs (opposed to the previous 2 million) to be on tier with the premium offering but without the ability to listen to a specific song. It now plays a shuffled playlist of similar songs with pot luck if you get what you want.
Quite disappointed in this change as you can’t actually listen to the music you want without paying £10.99 a month. Sorry, just needed a bit of a rant. Yes, I suppose this is better for those who like to listen to random shuffled music but can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a step backwards.
Hmm ,it is inconsistent .I listened to a few songs that I picked and albums no problem but other albums did as you say .
Also if you pick an album and skip a few tracks it cones up ‘skip limit reached ‘
It was pretty rubbish anyway and rarely used it ,guess I will use it even less now .
Also if you pick an album and skip a few tracks it cones up ‘skip limit reached ‘
It was pretty rubbish anyway and rarely used it ,guess I will use it even less now .
They’ve made a right b*lls of it / forced users to consider upgrading to make Jeff Bezos more money (delete as appropriate).
The headline is they’ve given users 98 million more songs, but in reality they’ve made it a complete pain to use, so I’m worse off.
Not only can I not pick a specific song to play (or at least, not on repeat), but why would I request a particular artist only for Amazon to force me into hearing a totally unrequested artist on shuffle? Infuriating.
It’s annoying because the prior version, though limited, was sufficient for my needs and overall Prime (even at the increased £95 per year cost) was still very good value. This fiasco removes a central plank of its attraction.
I think the skip limit is six times per hour.
The headline is they’ve given users 98 million more songs, but in reality they’ve made it a complete pain to use, so I’m worse off.
Not only can I not pick a specific song to play (or at least, not on repeat), but why would I request a particular artist only for Amazon to force me into hearing a totally unrequested artist on shuffle? Infuriating.
It’s annoying because the prior version, though limited, was sufficient for my needs and overall Prime (even at the increased £95 per year cost) was still very good value. This fiasco removes a central plank of its attraction.
I think the skip limit is six times per hour.
It, along with the increase in Prime membership has made me realise I don't need or want Prime any more. I've started buying direct from companies and their sites wherever I can, it often works out cheaper too nowadays as they're not forced to pay a chunk to Amazon.
Amazon really isn't much better than AliExpress these days; it's even full of the same no-name dross and it's harder to find trusted known brands and sellers, particularly if you're trying to buy from UK companies.
For some stuff it's almost impossible to avoid but wherever I can I try to avoid buying Chinese stuff.
Amazon really isn't much better than AliExpress these days; it's even full of the same no-name dross and it's harder to find trusted known brands and sellers, particularly if you're trying to buy from UK companies.
For some stuff it's almost impossible to avoid but wherever I can I try to avoid buying Chinese stuff.
Edited by Funk on Wednesday 2nd November 23:00
Whatever Prime costs a month/year is extremely good value if you utilise enough of it.
Ultimately £10.99 a month as a standalone isn’t unreasonable for access to 100 million songs on demand. The artists are still getting negligible amounts per play. Think back to when you had to buy albums.
Ultimately £10.99 a month as a standalone isn’t unreasonable for access to 100 million songs on demand. The artists are still getting negligible amounts per play. Think back to when you had to buy albums.
I'd built up a playlist of music that I found through the amazon music app, and have been playing that in the car, in particular, a fair bit on shuffle even before this change. Seemingly ideal use case for the changes as now I just get access to more music with the same experience.
However, two small problems ruin that for me:
1. I skip tracks frequently as I'm just not in the mood for everything on any playlist. Now I can't beyond a couple every hour.
2. So far amazon music's shuffle plays the same tracks in the same order each time I get in the car; I guess there's no real random seed used to shuffle, or no reshuffling each time.
Those two things combined mean that I basically can't use it, and I'll just concentrate more on buying LPs which often come with digital downloads (and will need to find a chromecast & android auto compatible music player app to switch to).
It also means I'm even less tied into Prime, since the price increase - just need a few more TV shows and films to end or drop off Prime and I might as well cancel.
However, two small problems ruin that for me:
1. I skip tracks frequently as I'm just not in the mood for everything on any playlist. Now I can't beyond a couple every hour.
2. So far amazon music's shuffle plays the same tracks in the same order each time I get in the car; I guess there's no real random seed used to shuffle, or no reshuffling each time.
Those two things combined mean that I basically can't use it, and I'll just concentrate more on buying LPs which often come with digital downloads (and will need to find a chromecast & android auto compatible music player app to switch to).
It also means I'm even less tied into Prime, since the price increase - just need a few more TV shows and films to end or drop off Prime and I might as well cancel.
Amazon now have the markets, they can now risk charging extra for everything that they've offered for free or have discounted for years. Kindle is the same, used to get loads of books for a couple of quid, now they're pretty much full price, because they want you to subscribe to kindle unlimited. Quite clever if you're Amazon, a little bit s
t if you're the consumer.
t if you're the consumer.Problem is its not just their content that they are shuffling. Amazon Music has imported some of my own CDs/albums that I have uploaded to my phone and shuffles them. Also albums that I have purchased and downloaded have been shuffled. They are telling me how to listen to albums that I own that is bullst.
t.Dingu said:
I’m sure all the moaners work, or if they own a business sell products or services, below market rate for charitable reasons.
As a moaner I'm afraid that I am not sure what the market rate is for my employment. Back to Amazon Music: I was fine with what I had before, and had no idea Amazon were offering that service as a loss leader, or charitably.
Right now I'd like to just be able to play songs (most of which I also own either from buying them through Amazon or the artist themselves) in an actual random order rather than a fixed shuffle through the same tracks in the same order every time I listen to the playlist, and to be able to skip songs as much as I want.
Pragmatically, there is no way £10 a month is worth that when I can just use another piece of software to properly shuffle and skip through my music. Or indeed choose specific tracks.
aizvara said:
As a moaner I'm afraid that I am not sure what the market rate is for my employment.
Back to Amazon Music: I was fine with what I had before, and had no idea Amazon were offering that service as a loss leader, or charitably.
Right now I'd like to just be able to play songs (most of which I also own either from buying them through Amazon or the artist themselves) in an actual random order rather than a fixed shuffle through the same tracks in the same order every time I listen to the playlist, and to be able to skip songs as much as I want.
Pragmatically, there is no way £10 a month is worth that when I can just use another piece of software to properly shuffle and skip through my music. Or indeed choose specific tracks.
What's likely happening is it's just identifying albums that are tied to your account and playing them back from their library as that's the way they've set this service level to operate - if you have your own music on device then a third party music playing app will take care of that (Pulsar Music Player if you use Android is a cracking, fuss free player) Back to Amazon Music: I was fine with what I had before, and had no idea Amazon were offering that service as a loss leader, or charitably.
Right now I'd like to just be able to play songs (most of which I also own either from buying them through Amazon or the artist themselves) in an actual random order rather than a fixed shuffle through the same tracks in the same order every time I listen to the playlist, and to be able to skip songs as much as I want.
Pragmatically, there is no way £10 a month is worth that when I can just use another piece of software to properly shuffle and skip through my music. Or indeed choose specific tracks.
It gets worse with the music unlimited app. Every time I start the app it starts playing the same track and then goes through the same "random" tracks. The only way to genuinely get it to play random is to let start playing the first track, turn off shuffle, press next track, turn on shuffle, and it then it starts playing random tracks.
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