Amazon Music gets a free ad-supported tier for Alexa users

Amazon Music Unlimited costs $8 a month on its own, but Amazon is now starting to roll out a free tier for Alexa device owners. Customers in the U.S. will be able to access an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations for free, even if they're not Prime subscribers.

Customers will be able to tune into a station based on song, artist, era, or genre, and access top global playlists including Country Heat, Fuego Latino, and more. Amazon is taking a similar approach to Prime Music, which provides access to 2 million songs to those subscribing to Amazon's annual membership. Amazon Music Unlimited, meanwhile, has a selection of 50 million tunes.

Amazon is essentially incentivizing the sale of its Echo devices with the free tier. It's a great way to pull customers into its ecosystem, and the announcement itself came on the heels of Google revealing that Google Home owners can listen to YouTube Music for free with ads. WIth the Echo Dot going for just $40, that's a pretty good incentive.

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.