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At a glance
- Best for
- On-demand lossless and spatial listening
- Standout
- Ultra HD up to 24-bit/192kHz and Dolby Atmos included
- Free trial
- Up to 4 months for new subscribers
- Free plan
- Amazon Music Free, ad-supported shuffle play
- Pricing model
- Subscription, monthly or annual
- Cancellation
- Ends at term end; no refunds; monthly plans can pause
Pros
- Audio Specification at the Top of the Market: HD is 16-bit at 44.1kHz and around 850kbps, Ultra HD runs 24-bit at sample rates up to 192kHz averaging 3,730kbps, and Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio are both included at no surcharge.
- A Long Free Run Before Any Money Moves: The current promotion gives new subscribers four months free with Prime or three without, against a standard trial of thirty days.
- Priced Level With Apple, Under Spotify: At $11.99 a month for Prime members it matches Apple Music and undercuts Spotify Premium by a dollar, and the $5.99 student plan is the cheapest of the three.
Cons
- The Prime tier included with a membership is shuffle-first rather than on-demand — outside All-Access Playlists you get skip limits and no offline downloads, which is exactly what most people assume they are getting and are not. Choosing a song when you want it means the paid Unlimited tier.
- Nothing is refunded once billed: the terms state payment is non-refundable even if you did not use the service, and the trial converts automatically unless you cancel first. Set a reminder for the end of the free run, and do not subscribe through the iOS app, because Amazon cannot cancel or refund those.
The Verdict
What sets Amazon Music apart is that the top audio tier costs nothing extra: HD is 16-bit at a minimum 44.1kHz and around 850kbps; Ultra HD is 24-bit at sample rates from 44.1kHz up to 192kHz, averaging 3,730kbps; Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio are both included. On paper that is at or above anything else on the market — Spotify's lossless tops out at 24-bit/44.1kHz with no spatial format, and Apple Music matches on lossless and spatial for a dollar less. The catalogue is 100 million songs, and an Unlimited Individual or Family subscription also includes one Audible audiobook a month. Pricing is competitive with its rivals: $11.99 a month or $119 a year for Prime members, $12.99 without Prime, $21.99 for a family of six, $5.99 for students and $6.99 for a single Echo or Fire TV device. The free run is generous at the moment — four months for Prime members, three without, for new subscribers only. The thing most people get wrong is what a Prime membership actually includes. Amazon Music Prime is ad-free and covers the full 100-million-song catalogue, but its streaming format is shuffle play: outside All-Access Playlists you face skip limits, and offline downloads are limited to those playlists too. If you want to pick a track and hear it, that is the paid Unlimited tier, and the Prime discount on it comes to exactly one dollar a month. The $6.99 Single Device plan is a narrower proposition than it looks, with no HD, no Ultra HD, no spatial audio, no offline listening and no audiobook, tied to one fixed device. Two things belong in the open before you sign up. The terms state plainly that payment is non-refundable even if you did not use the service, and that cancelling stops the renewal without refunding what has already been billed — the fourteen-day withdrawal right in the same document applies to the EU, UK and Brazil, not to the United States or Canada. And the trial converts automatically at the end of the promotional run unless you cancel first, so diarise it. One practical warning: do not subscribe through the iOS app, because Amazon cannot cancel, change the payment method on, or refund subscriptions bought that way, and promotional pricing is unavailable there. On the independent record the app rather than the service draws the criticism — amazonmusic.com holds 1.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot, though across only 83 reviews, with complaints centring on crashes and confusing subscription options, while PCMag gives the service an Editors' Choice at 4 out of 5. Prices have risen twice in twelve months, with new Canadian rates from September 2026. Made for listeners whose kit can carry lossless audio: Ultra HD and spatial audio cost nothing extra. New subscribers get up to four months free, so subscribe on the web and stream now.
100 Million Songs, With Ultra HD Included
Amazon Music runs in four tiers, and the differences between them are larger than the names suggest. Amazon Music Free is ad-supported, needs no Prime membership, and offers shuffle play across curated playlists and stations with no offline listening. Amazon Music Prime comes with a Prime membership at no extra cost and covers the full 100-million-song catalogue ad-free, along with what Amazon describes as the largest catalogue of ad-free top podcasts — but its playback is shuffle-first, with on-demand play and offline downloads restricted to All-Access Playlists and skip limits applying almost everywhere else. Amazon Music Unlimited is the full paid service: on-demand, ad-free, unlimited skips, offline listening, and HD, Ultra HD and spatial audio throughout, plus one Audible audiobook a month on the Individual and Family plans. A fourth tier, Amazon Music Standard, is named in Amazon's own terms of use and help pages, covering the same catalogue and audio quality without audiobooks and without requiring Prime, though no US price for it is published.
US pricing, as published on Amazon's own FAQ: Unlimited Individual is $11.99 a month or $119 a year for Prime members and $12.99 a month without Prime; the Family plan covering up to six accounts is $21.99 a month or $219 a year and is presented as a Prime-member option; the Student plan is $5.99 a month, verified through SheerID and valid for a maximum of four years; and the Single Device plan for one Echo or Fire TV device is $6.99 a month. That last one carries significant carve-outs — no HD, no Ultra HD, no spatial audio, no offline playback and no audiobook. Prices rose in January 2025 and again in early 2026, the second increase reaching existing US customers from March 2026. Canadian pricing is mid-transition: Prime-member Individual moves from CAD $11.54 to $11.99 a month and CAD $114.45 to $119.00 a year, non-Prime from CAD $12.59 to $12.99, and Family from CAD $20.99 to $21.99 — new Canadian customers from 26 August 2026, existing ones at their next renewal on or after 30 September 2026. Prime membership itself is a separate cost on top of any of this.
On audio, Amazon publishes real numbers rather than adjectives. HD tracks are 16-bit with a minimum sample rate of 44.1kHz and an average bitrate of around 850kbps; Ultra HD tracks are 24-bit at sample rates from 44.1kHz up to 192kHz, averaging 3,730kbps. Both are delivered as FLAC. Spatial audio covers Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio, playable through the iOS or Android app with any headphones. Amazon is unusually candid about the hardware required: 1.5 to 2Mbps of connection for HD and 5 to 10Mbps for Ultra HD, data use of up to 5.5MB a minute for HD and 12MB for Ultra HD, and the plain warning that most wireless headphones compress audio in transmission and cannot support HD playback at all. A three-and-a-half-minute song is 9MB in SD, 51MB in HD and 153MB in Ultra HD. Streaming is limited to one device at a time on every plan except Family, which allows six; up to ten devices can be authorised to an account, and any device you download to has to be authorised.
The billing terms are the part to read before subscribing. Amazon's terms of use state, in capitals, that unless you cancel before a charge your plan continues automatically and Amazon is authorised to collect the then-current fee using any payment method on record. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current term rather than immediately, so you keep access to what you have paid for, and monthly plans can be paused instead of cancelled, though annual plans cannot. On refunds the wording is unambiguous: payment is non-refundable even if you did not use the service, and cancelling does not refund fees already paid. The fourteen-day withdrawal right in the same document applies only to the European Union, the United Kingdom and Brazil, so it does not help a US or Canadian subscriber. One practical warning: Amazon cannot cancel, manage payment methods for, or refund a subscription bought through Apple's in-app purchase, and promotional pricing is not available there either, so subscribe on the web. On the independent record the criticism lands consistently on the app rather than the service — amazonmusic.com carries 1.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot, though from only 83 reviews, with complaints centring on crashes, playback cutting out and confusing subscription options, while PCMag awards the service an Editors' Choice at 4 out of 5 and names the one-dollar Prime discount and the removal of music videos as its weak points. It suits listeners who want on-demand, lossless and spatial audio rather than Prime's shuffle play, so subscribe on the web, note when the free run ends, and stream now.
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About this review
How this was written, who paid for what, and how the verdict stays independent.
Is this Amazon Music review sponsored?
No. Amazon Music did not pay for this write-up, see it before publication, or have any say in the verdict. If we earn anything it is a commission after you buy, and it comes out of the merchant’s margin rather than your price.
How was the Amazon Music assessed?
By using it and by checking the claims made about it against what it actually does. Where our time with something has been limited, the review says so rather than implying more testing than happened.
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