Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

Nice new perk from Amazon

A place to discuss programming, content sources & aggregator web sites, hardware, and all things related to emerging audio programming distribution technologies.
User avatar
Lester The Nightfly
Posts: 1735
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:19 pm

Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by Lester The Nightfly » Tue Nov 01, 2022 2:06 pm

Amazon just announced they've made the entire Amazon Music catalogue free and without advertisements for Prime subscribers. The only caveat it seems is, not unlike the free version of Spotify, your playlist will be in shuffle mode for the free service.

This seems like a tremendous bonus if you're already using Prime. It also seems like a H*** kick in the groin to Spotify. You can argue the merits of which company is more evil, Amazon or Spotify, but if you look at this strictly in terms of the deliverables I think Amazon comes out ahead with this. Personally I've been using Spotify's free tier for a long time. It's really shifted from maybe three or four songs followed by a couple of ads to now two songs, three or four ads. Period. If I wanted that I'd listen to commercial radio (I haven't for a good 20 years). I also don't know that I'm going to miss Spotify's propensity to use alternate versions or remixes of songs. I don't mind an occasional changeup, but way too often it starts sounding like those janky 8-track tape and cassettes you'd find at truck stops. You know what I'm talking about, the one's performed by Nick Jagger or Lead Zeppelin. I'll be real curious if the Prime "free" tier will deliver the same bitrate steam as their regular service, unlike Spotify who really molests the bitrate of the free version.

I any event I'm going to give this good workout. If there's any interest I'll report back on my impressions.

BTW - Here's a link to an interview with Amazon Music's VP and in some ways the architect of the operation. It's also worth underlining that prior to this announcement Prime subscriber's were limited (?) to tap into 2 million songs for the free tier. They now have access to the entire 100 million song library.

https://www.theverge.com/23433343/amazo ... ts-decoder



User avatar
WOHO
Posts: 820
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:05 am
Location: 2965 Pickle Rd.

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by WOHO » Sun Nov 06, 2022 1:22 am

Amazon musta known that I was gonna cancel as I have no spare cash to buy anything from beastazon, and the shows where you want more than the 1st season are not free; this music deal might actually give me pause to renew, or is this the old SXM trick- you get something 'new' right before a major subscription price increase?



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11877
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:41 am

I will definitely check it out!

Thanks for the info, Lester.



User avatar
Lester The Nightfly
Posts: 1735
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:19 pm

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by Lester The Nightfly » Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:45 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:41 am
I will definitely check it out!

Thanks for the info, Lester.
I have to report that after messing with this for a weeks there's a lot to be desired in terms of performance. Not ready for Primetime, so to speak.

The Good:
The sound quality is miles ahead of Spotify's free tier. Much, much better.

The depth of the music library is quite good, if not a little better than Spotify. My tastes run very eclectic so not entirely surprising that I came up empty on finding a few tunes I was seeking but by in large the offerings are pretty robust. I will also say there's a better selection of 'versions' than Spotify. Mono versions or pseudo-stereo on old stuff, live versions, studio versions, remastered versions. I've not run into any of the janky "As interpreted by ____" truck stop shit.

The ease of building a playlist is quite good. Search functions are pretty accurate although there were a few times I'd have to take the long way around finding a selection (i.e. revert to searching by things other than song title) You'll probably find what you're after, but you may have to make a few attempts using artist name or album name or associated artists or genre. Helps to know your music but 95% you'll find what you want on your first go.

Good app platform support, which kinda leads me into The Bad.

The Bad:

It appears Amazon has done a lot of tweaking of the app(s) to accommodate Prime Music (or whatever they are calling it) and it shows. Unfortunately these weakness affect the core function of product. A couple examples are a shuffle mode (which differentiates the Prime tier from the Unlimited tier) doesn't appear to shuffle well or at all. Too may times after a shuffle, the music plays in the same order prior to a shuffle. It also seems you get a limited amount of shuffles after a playlist has been set.

Limited skips. Not different than the free tier Spotify, six skips per hour, but Amazon failed to mention it.

Odd behavior with occasionally including selections from the "Since you like this, try this" playlist into your constructed list. There's a similar function on Spotify, but the computer curated list never invades your playlist.

Maybe worst of all is falling into a repeated loop on a particular song. Things will be playing swimmingly then boom, same song over and over again without a way to gracefully break the cycle. I've had this happen a number of times (oddly it's happened a lot with cuts from Keith Urban's Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing album.) Where it gets sticky is if you've used up all of your six skips you're stuck with a song forever, until you stop the app, which upon restart put you back at the beginning of the non-existent shuffle. Inexcusable. What's maddening is it's apparently a long standing bug that Amazon won't address. I guess when your attention is split between selling Chinese crap, keeping AWS up and running, the VOD operation, etc, etc. there's not much time to address something that isn't directly impacting the bottom line.

Final verdict: Much potential but it not there yet. I think the problems will resolve at some point if for no other reason than the subscribers for the Unlimited tier are mad as hell about these glitches and aren't afraid to say so (have a look at Reddit's /AmazonMusic thread, it's brutal). Also there's a lot riding on the Prime Music initiative to make Amazon Prime membership more attractive. Having an iffy app and a few bold moves by Spotify and the entire effort goes in the bin.

I've put my migration to the product on hold until I see how things shake out. I wouldn't bet against Amazon, but it may take some time before it's a really desirable product. Good luck, kids.



radioandtventhusiast
Posts: 1233
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:08 pm
Location: Toledo, OH

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by radioandtventhusiast » Mon Nov 14, 2022 12:44 pm

Many people seem to be upset about having to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited, and also not being able to play one artist or the desired song unless you pay up.



kager
Posts: 1387
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:10 pm
Location: GPS lost

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by kager » Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:20 pm

You get what you pay for.

You want free... deal with the downsides.


"The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."

User avatar
Lester The Nightfly
Posts: 1735
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:19 pm

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by Lester The Nightfly » Mon Nov 14, 2022 8:33 pm

kager wrote:
Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:20 pm
You get what you pay for.

You want free... deal with the downsides.
Not exactly free. You must be a Prime subscriber (@ $139/yr) to use the product. That's why I characterized it as a "perk".



User avatar
teetoppz28
Posts: 797
Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2019 5:01 pm

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by teetoppz28 » Tue Nov 15, 2022 10:57 am

I love using Amazon Music for long drives, but their Apple Car Play app is complete trash.


Dropping knowledge on forum MAGAts.
Unapologetically intellectually superior.

User avatar
Lester The Nightfly
Posts: 1735
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:19 pm

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by Lester The Nightfly » Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:43 pm

teetoppz28 wrote:
Tue Nov 15, 2022 10:57 am
I love using Amazon Music for long drives, but their Apple Car Play app is complete trash.
That's good to know, thanks for passing along your experience.

Amazon and Apple have never really played well with each other, so I'm not surprised there are issues with Car Play. I'll run the Prime Video app on an Apple TV and I can't shake the feeling the experience would be much better if there were more cooperation between the two companies with all their products. It's a shame but not completely unexpected.



User avatar
teetoppz28
Posts: 797
Joined: Thu Jun 13, 2019 5:01 pm

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by teetoppz28 » Wed Nov 16, 2022 10:32 am

Lester The Nightfly wrote:
Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:43 pm
That's good to know, thanks for passing along your experience.

Amazon and Apple have never really played well with each other, so I'm not surprised there are issues with Car Play. I'll run the Prime Video app on an Apple TV and I can't shake the feeling the experience would be much better if there were more cooperation between the two companies with all their products. It's a shame but not completely unexpected.
I think you're on to something RE: Apple vs Amazon...

I also feel the same about Google vs Amazon when it comes to YouTube TV app on my FireTV stick... I think Amazon just rubs other large media companies the wrong way. The way Amazon has bastardized Android OS so much, to the point I have to root the device to add Google Play to get the good apps!


Dropping knowledge on forum MAGAts.
Unapologetically intellectually superior.

User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11877
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Nov 19, 2022 10:22 am

The sound quality using the app on my Samsung TV, with audio output to my Yamaha HTR, is only okay. I hear noticeable artifact tinniness. The SXM app produces much better audio to my ears.

The menu architecture is not particularly user friendly, and the pre-built stations are categorized sloppily.

I will stick with other services for now for my music enjoyment.



kager
Posts: 1387
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:10 pm
Location: GPS lost

Re: Nice new perk from Amazon

Post by kager » Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:42 am

Lester The Nightfly wrote:
Mon Nov 14, 2022 8:33 pm
kager wrote:
Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:20 pm
You get what you pay for.

You want free... deal with the downsides.
Not exactly free. You must be a Prime subscriber (@ $139/yr) to use the product. That's why I characterized it as a "perk".
Thank you for the correction.

I've been using (and paying for) AM Unlimited for so long, I forgot about Prime membership being a prereq ...


"The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic