Rumors about Amazon launching a standalone music streaming service have been circulating for some time, but until now we've assumed that the service would take a similar form to its competitors such as Spotify or Tidal.
Industry sources speaking to Recode have indicated that Amazon might be about to bring something new to the music-streaming table.
In addition to the industry-standard $10/£10 tier, these sources are reporting that Amazon intends to launch an additional tier at half the monthly price.
Is there an echo-exclusive in here?
The catch? The tier will only allow you to listen to music through your Amazon Echo speaker.
That means no desktop version, but more importantly, it means no mobile listening either.
This raises the question of whether this means we're about to see the Echo launched outside of the US.
If the voice-activated speaker is going to be a core part of Amazon's music streaming service, then it makes sense for it to get a wider release than just the USA.
Amazon currently already operates Amazon Prime music, but in order for it to compete with the likes of Spotify and Tidal Amazon would need to significantly increase the quantity of music on the service, as well as untethering it from the annual Amazon Prime subscription, as it has already done so with Amazon Prime Video.
We have contacted Amazon for comment on these rumors and will update this piece with its response.
Via Recode
