Amazon will begin playing ads on its Prime Music tier in India as of July 2, which is included with a Prime membership but previously offered ad-free, on-demand listening with offline downloads. Simultaneously, the company launched Music Unlimited in India for the first time, steering users who want to “continue listening ad-free and offline with HD and Spatial Audio” toward the paid tier.
Users in Australia reported receiving similar e-mails. For now, the rollout does not affect subscribers in Canada, Mexico, or the U.S., but without a doubt, it's headed their way soon. If Polymarket or Kalshi had a bet on this, I'd go all in!
Is it just me, or is Amazon Prime becoming an ad-supported trial of the company's premium services?
In recent years, Amazon has continually gutted the value of its Prime membership. For example…
- Prime Video used to be ad-free by default. Now ad-free costs extra.
- Amazon Music used to offer 2 million songs on demand. Now the bigger catalog is mostly shuffle-only unless you pay for Music Unlimited.
- Twitch Prime used to include universal ad-free Twitch viewing until Amazon removed it.
- Free Prime Shipping used to be its highest and fastest shipping tier. Now Amazon sells faster delivery on top of Prime, such as Same-Day Delivery or Amazon Now (30-minute delivery).
- Amazon grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Fresh stores used to be an included Prime perk. Now it's a paid delivery add-on.
- Prime shipping used to be shareable with friends and extended family outside your home. Now the “Prime Invitee” program is dead and you can only share the benefits with one other adult in your household.
All the while, Amazon Prime has gotten 40% more expensive during the past 10 years, and technically 100% more expensive if you include paying for the ad-free add-ons to Prime Video. None of that feels very Prime to me.
What are your thoughts? Join the conversation on my LinkedIn post.
