Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be surprised. If it feels like every streaming service has been getting a price hike lately, you can trust those feelings. Price increases have impacted a ton of services lately. From music to video streaming, it feels like no one has been spared a price increase over the last year. You’d have to be subscribed to some incredibly niche streaming service to avoid a price hike.
It appears that Amazon has looked around and noticed that, while all of us complain every time it has happened with our other services, we’ve largely stuck around anyway. So, the company has decided to institute a price hike of its own. As reported by Variety, Amazon Music Unlimited is about to get more expensive for Amazon Prime members.
According to the report, the price of the Amazon Music Unlimited individual plan will increase from $8.99 per month to $9.99 per month (according to an update on Amazon’s website). Non-Prime members will still pay more at $10.99 per month (the company increased the price of that plan back in February). Amazon is also increasing the price of the Amazon Music Unlimited family plan from $15.99 per month to $16.99 per month.
- The Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan for Prime members is changing from $8.99 to $9.99 per month, $89 to $99 per year.
- The Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan is changing from $15.99 to $16.99 per month, $159 to $169 per year.
For those who thought they might be able to avoid the price increase by paying annually, you are unfortunately out of luck as well. The company is increasing the price of the annual plan for individuals from $89 per year to $99 per year. For families, the annual family plan is increasing from $159 per year to $169 per year.
So, when is this price increase going into effect? According to Amazon, for existing customers, the price increase will go into effect for all plans “on or after September 19, 2023, on the date of their next monthly renewal.” For new customers who sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited on or after August 15, 2023, they will start paying the increased prices immediately, so if you sign up today, you’re already paying the higher price.
From August 15, 2023, new customers will see the updated price when signing up to Amazon Music Unlimited. For existing customers, the updated price will go into effect on or after September 19, 2023, on the date of their next monthly renewal.
It’s not surprising to see Amazon make this move. Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music have all instituted price increases in their own music streaming services over the last year. Price increases have also occurred across most of the major video streaming services as well.
We’ll likely see this trend continue, so get ready to pay cable-level prices for streaming. For some people, that is already the reality.
