All major platforms seem to be releasing updates that are anything but desirable to their users. One such update that has sparked a series of bad reviews is the new October update by Amazon Music. What was once regarded as a good and easy-to-use music streaming app by many has now fallen prey to another greedy tactic? Want to listen to a song from your playlist? A thing of the past.
Get ready to skip through all the other songs that are in there since now you won’t be able to choose the song of your choice. What’s more, is that even the skips are numbered and will stop working after you use them a certain amount of times. Sounds horrible, but that’s exactly why all users have been criticizing it.
Amazon Music’s history goes way back to September 25th, 2007. It has been providing a wide assortment of singers and genres to listen from, which comprised around 2 million songs. It first only gave out its services to users from the USA, but over the years, it has expanded considerably and now can be used by around 50 countries worldwide.
Before we talk about the new update, you should know that Amazon Music offers two types of subscriptions. One was for Prime Video users who could access the music and download it, and the other was a separate Amazon Music subscription that could be bought without having a Prime Video Membership.
Amazon Music: When Was The Update Seen?
This update was brought out by Amazon Music developers in October 2022. The new updates kept rolling out till the first week of November.
Amazon Music: Details Of The New Updates
It’s not as if the update was only on the bad side, the pros of it were good, but not good enough to justify other changes that accompanied it. Amazon Music now hosts more than 100 million songs, which is a huge amount compared to the 2 million songs it previously had. The developers informed us that having more songs on the application was a demand that was seen constantly.
Another update is that there are now more podcasts to listen from. Amazon Music has been hosting podcasts ever since it acquired the podcasting platform, Art19 in June 2021. With this update, there’ll be many more to choose from, ranging from all kinds of genres.
However, these updates came with other not-so-good changes. Users of Amazon Music can now not choose a song On-demand. Their playlist will play in a shuffled manner. They later came out with a notice that the shuffle play will not be for All access playlists, along with family or religious-themed content.
The choice of skipping ads has also been changed. Limited skips mean you’ll have to view ads completely before you can listen to the song. This update impacts Prime membership users more, as now the songs they’ve downloaded or purchased previously can only be played in the presence of an internet connection.
Limited skips and Shuffle Play are removed if users buy the premium version of the music app, named the Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Additional benefits of the subscription include HD Songs, Offline streaming, and ad-free podcasts. It comes for $8.99 for Prime Membership users and those without it, the price totals to around $9.99 per month.
Amazon Music Updates: Users Are NOT Happy
After people started experiencing the latest update, most of the reviews weren’t positive. People on Twitter have been complaining about how the new rollout has affected them. Many claimed they weren’t able to stream the songs they had purchased before. People also called out Amazon Music for copying the format that other music platforms have.
https://twitter.com/MikeMcKenna_/status/1605221283406708739
Users with a Prime Membership feel that the additional charges that they’ll need to pay should have been included in their membership. With the choice of selecting the songs you’d like to listen to being taken away, many have reportedly uninstalled the app or switched to other options.
https://twitter.com/jesskougl/status/1588223481547698177
How Amazon Has Reacted To The Outrage:
Seeing the backlash they’ve received, Amazon Music developers first came out with a 1-month free trial version for those unsatisfied with the new update. They later increased the duration to about three months, after which the users will have to pay the monthly charges. The reduced cost and free trial version are not for already existing users.
Another notice they released informed users about All Access playlists, which could be played without the shuffle. It’s not confirmed if there’ll be more updates in the Amazon Music saga.
Also, Read What Time Does Amazon Prime Video Release New Episodes?
