Amazon Music Unlimited launches in Europe to take on Spotify

One month after launching in the U.S., Amazon has announced that its on-demand music streaming service is now available in Europe, too.

Arriving today in the U.K., Germany, and Austria, Amazon Music Unlimited (AMU) is essentially an extension of Amazon’s existing Prime Music service, which offers a limited selection of tracks as part of Amazon’s annual Prime membership. With Amazon Music Unlimited, however, Amazon is taking on the big players of the music streaming world, including Spotify and Apple Music.

The pricing and service of AMU is pretty much the same in Europe as it is in the U.S. Those who aren’t Prime members will pay €9.99 / £9.99 a month for access to around 40 million tracks on-demand, which is the same as Spotify or Apple Music. However, this price falls to €7.99 / £7.99 per month for Prime members, and €3.99 / £3.99 per month on an Echo subscription plan, which basically limits listening to a single Amazon Echo, a device that launched in Europe a couple of months back. There is still no family plan available through AMU, but Amazon previously announced that it will make one available in the future — this will likely cost around $15 / €15 / £15 per month for a family of six.

Overall, AMU is comparable to its competitors, with Prime members able to save €24 / £24 per year compared to Spotify or Apple Music. Amazon hasn’t given any indication that it will launch AMU in other markets. And considering that it had announced at the time of the U.S. launch that the U.K., Germany, and Austria were specifically slated to receive the on-demand streaming service, it’s not likely that the company plans to make the service available in other markets in the foreseeable future.