The difference is that Prime is shuffle-only. You can't pick specifically which songs to play. Amazon Music Unlimited is unlimited access to every song on-demand. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GW3PHAUCZM8L7W9L Answer from cyberchief on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › i thought amazonmusic is included in prime, what’s musicunlimited?
I thought AmazonMusic is included in Prime, what’s MusicUnlimited? : r/AmazonMusic
September 14, 2025 - Amazon Music and Amazon Music Unlimited are simply two different tiers for service. One is included with Prime and more restricted in what is available, and the other offers a much broader selection of albums and playlists. The unlimited costs like $12 a month and it also includes one book ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › unlisted differences between amazon music prime and amazon music unlimited
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Unlisted differences between Amazon Music Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited
February 27, 2025 -

Amazon has the most complete list of differences between these two tiers that I've seen, but I've noticed less important differences between the desktop and mobile apps I'm confused by.

I had a trial of Unlimited and it just downgraded to regular Amazon Music Prime.

  1. The playlists under "All-access" in the desktop app and iOS app are not the same.

  2. The "My Likes" playlist created from hearting songs in the mobile app is no longer accessible in the desktop app. Clicking it prompts to join Unlimited, whereas I was able to play it before.

  3. I can still add songs to the "My Likes" playlist in the desktop app, and while I can't play that playlist from the desktop, I can play it from the mobile.

All other playlists appear to function equally across both apps. Can anyone confirm this is everyone's experience and maybe the logic behind it?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › amazon music prime vs unlimited changes
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Amazon music prime vs unlimited changes
December 6, 2022 -

Amazon recently removed a whole bunch of songs from Amazon music prime and moved them to Amazon music unlimited for an additional $8.99/month now this is why I'm leaving Amazon music if I'm paying $15 for prime i should get all the songs offered at no additional price.. I'm still going to have to pay for another music subscription service at this point but I'm not getting Amazon music unlimited... they really want people to force people to pay additional money to listen to songs that were there in the Amazon music prime selection 2 months ago and now aren't anymore.. I'm sorry Amazon but this is unacceptable.. I'll spend my additional money on Apple music or Tidal instead

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonprime › amazon unlimited music vs. amazon music
Amazon unlimited music vs. Amazon Music : r/amazonprime
June 11, 2025 - Amazon Music is free for Prime members. Amazon Music Unlimited is not. You must have inadvertently clicked on a trial membership opportunity.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › soo confused with amazon music...what am i paying for?
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Soo Confused with Amazon Music...What am I paying for?
December 30, 2023 -

I have Prime, and I also pay extra for Amazon Music. Totally fine on Alexa in the house and it is kinda sucking on my phone (I just do podcast and it keeps bluetoothing).
Anyways, on PC trying to log on, they are asking me to upgrade?? And pulling a Spodify saying I have one more skip before an ad?
This is mostly on one wifi, so that is not the issue. Maybe it is a device limit? Because I am not going to upgrade..like to what?

Top answer
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So you're paying for Prime subscription... It just gives you the right to use tier 1 perks.. Separate subscription for Amazon Music gives you more perks, no commercials, premium music, no skips on song album, full album etc... Then even when you have Amazon Music Unlimited, it's another tier to unlock more perks... Now what I've noticed for a long time is, even though I have those 2 subscriptions it still asks me if I want to upgrade to Amazon Music unlimited... It's looks like at first glance you're paying for unlimited but it's just an ad that makes you think you need to subscribe. So you are paying for the same services I'm paying for.. 1..Prime for all of Amazon serv. and 2. The subscription to Amazon Music (for the premium perks). Don't get fooled by the "Amazon Music Unlimited" ad.
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There is a difference between Amazon Music Prime and Music Unlimited subscription. Prime is limited to music with a mandatory shuffle. That means that if you go to play a free Prime album you will not hear the music in the order that is on the album, and Amazon may insert random junk that it thinks you 'might' like into the playlist. Prime music also limits you to a specific number of 'skips' before it forces you to listen to all the rest of the music you may or may not want to listen to. I want to say you are allowed five skips before you stop getting the freedom to move on to another song before its end. I'm not really sure of the number as I avoid as much as possible playing any free music because of the limitations Amazon imposes upon the listener. My feeling is that Amazon made the Amazon Music Prime experience so much less enjoyable to 'encourage' listeners to sign up for the paid subscriptions service Music Unlimited. If you are paying currently for Music Unlimited and are getting behaviors from the app like is imposed currently on the Prime Music service, call the customer service number. Don't bother with the online Chat. It is hit or miss whether you get resolution with the chat experience. By the way, we need to stop calling Prime Music 'free'. We pay a subscription fee for Prime. Prime Music is part of that service. Therefore, Prime Music is not free. We pay for it.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › is amazon music included in prime?
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Is Amazon music included in Prime?
December 22, 2024 -

I've been a Prime member for 10+ years, but never used the music service. Last week I downloaded the app on my phoe and started listening. I have used Pandora, but I thought I'd try this and I thought it was included in Prime. The next day I got an email stating: "Your subscription costs $0.00 for the first 3 months and then $9.99 per month after,"

I thought it was included? Is there a "lite" version I am thinking of, or one with commercials or something?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › is music truly included in prime?
Is Music Truly Included In Prime? : r/AmazonMusic
March 12, 2023 - That clears it up - Prime Music is a diluted con and Amazon are driven entirely by avarice 😵‍💫 ... Prime Music has always been a “diluted” (if that’s how you want to express it) version of Unlimited given that it’s only one of the several included benefits of being a Prime customer such as Prime Video, free expedited delivery, Prime Reading, unlimited photo storage etc etc, and frankly for a very reasonable monthly charge.
Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › prime vs unlimited
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Prime vs unlimited
August 14, 2021 - Prime - Choose what to play from a limited selection of songs · Unlimited - Choose what to play from all songs Amazon has access to, also HD format.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › what';s the use now?
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: What';s the use now?
November 4, 2022 -

I've been happily using Prime Music for five years now and have built up lists of curated music of the songs I wanted to listen to in the order that's important to me. Until today.

This is important because one will listen to playlists they have built at certain times

- waking up / morning routine (for me, songs played in an order helped me know how much time I had relative to when I got out of bed)

- working out (you do workouts in a certain order and prefer certain songs during certain exercises)

- you're in a certain mood (I had random songs show up in my "John Mellencamp" playlist who were not John Mellencamp. Defeats the purpose. Nearly all my playlists are like this and are now inherently broken.

- worship services - where you like to get people "pumping" at a certain time, then tone things down in a certain order which is now impossible to do when you're locked into "shuffle" while also having no idea when random songs you did not want will play.

The whole idea of a playlist was the "play" the songs you had taken the time to add to a "list" (preferably in the order you asked).

Amazon - if you are listening:

This is not an upgrade, not a good thing, not an improvement, and seriously unwelcomed. To suddenly break a service (and a solid one at that) in this way is a horrible way to treat paying customers. Yes, I know I do not currently pay for "Music Unlimited", but I do pay for Prime and Prime Music is part of Prime. I'd much, much rather have a smaller library of music, then add any one-off songs not in that library than have 400 million songs I do not need or want to hear pushed at random into my playlists that I spent years curating.

You've lost a customer. If your intended response to this is "Then pay for Music Unlimited", you're missing the point. I don't have a habit of paying a provider that breaks their service and tries to sell it as an improvement.

If I'm going to have to pay to have the service even close to what it was, then I will pay someone else with a track record of not breaking the service. How it works now is a step backward and it acts like services (e.g. Spotify) that I left to come to Prime Music for.

I do not expect I am alone in this feeling and I also do not expect I am alone in leaving this service behind after this.

Regards.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonprime › amazon music vs amazon music unlimited - the dilemma
r/amazonprime on Reddit: amazon music vs amazon music unlimited - the dilemma
January 28, 2018 -

hi everyone!

i am fairly new (joined a minute ago) in this group. i'm based in australia and after so many fucking years of withstanding repetitive content of netflix (and their originals), i decided to switch to amazon prime video about 9 months ago. everything was great, everything is still great (since i am with prime video, i get the prime delivery as well).

then they gave me 3 months of free, amazon music unlimited membership. switched from spotify to it. so far; i don't love the app, i think i missed around 200 songs from my spotify lists. (used an app to transfer my playlists) and i'm coming to the end of my subscription...

my question here is:

should i switch back to spotify or are you happy with amazon music unlimited?

or, an alternative is just sticking with amazon music (more of a limited library but might help, still.)

cheers!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › tried amazon prime music last night, already giving up on it, going back to spotify
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Tried Amazon Prime Music last night, already giving up on it, going back to Spotify
August 25, 2025 -

I started a free trial for Amazon Prime monthly just to try out the music, I mostly shop on eBay, not Amazon. I imported my Spotify playlists and liked songs from Spotify to Amazon Prime Music for a one-time payment of $7.99. I started playing my 49 hours long playlist of Rock, Alt Rock, and Alternative music from the 90s and 2000s that have a large variety of bands on it. First 2 songs it played I had just happened to hear on Spotify earlier in the day, one was Voodoo by Godsmack, the other was a Rise Against song. Then it played Awake by Godsmack (explicit). Then I noticed it kept playing Rise Against and Three Days Grace songs, most always those two bands over and over again. I got in my car and used Android Auto, and it played Voodoo by Godsmack again, I skip it, it played Awake by Godsmack (explicit) again. I skipped them.

I got back home, figured out ok the problem was the auto play similar songs setting, so I disabled it. Then it played VooDoo by Godsmack a third time! I'm like WTF? Does Amazon think I shoot up drugs? Never done that in my entire life. I skip it, then it played Awake by Godsmack yet again! Only this time it wasn't the explicit version. The Amazon music app continued to repeatedly play Rise Against and Three Days Grace!

So I cleared the cache and data from the Amazon Music App. I open the app again, log in, and it plays The Offspring. I'm thinkin, finally, I got it out of that mode. The song finishes... then it plays another Offspring song! I skip it and yet another Offspring song comes on! After that it went to 2 songs from 2 different bands, but after that it played another Offspring song! I'm all out of the 6 skips again at that point. It felt like Amazon Music was pushing the same bands on me over and over again to make me sick of hearing those bands, and to waste all my hourly skips. There was no option to see the queue either, not on my phone app or in android auto. And I'd need Unlimited version just to view the songs on my own main playlist apparently, or remove 740 something songs from it to get it down to the 50 songs limit.

I'm forced to go back to Spotify, AM is broken. Spotify has its own problems right now... main button in Android Auto to see the queue in Spotify changed to "Jam," a new feature I've never used and one that can be hacked. The queue button is no longer the rounded bigger rectangle button in Android Auto, it's a smaller circle button to the right of the big Jam button, just a bit further away from the driver seat and takes a bit of extra focus to push the smaller button while driving. Also, SmartShuffle stopped working that I was adding songs to my main rock and alt rock playlist with. It reverts to normal shuffle most the time now on both the mobile app and android auto, it only works when it feels like it, despite paying for a premium subscription. But I'd rather deal with that mess than this Amazon Prime Music garbage app.

Well, opened AM app again just now, and it played this same Rise Against song it already played not long ago, Ditching this garbage app.

UPDATE: I'll add that when I opened AM today, the first 4 songs it played was 3 Rise Against songs and 1 Three Days Grace song that it just played last night. I already renewed my Spotify sub this morning.

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Amazon
amazon.ca › gp › help › customer › display.html
Compare Amazon Music Plans and Subscription Features - Amazon Customer Service
Amazon Music for Prime members provides access to millions of songs ad-free, the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts, and thousands of playlists and stations.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › amazon music unlimited
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Amazon music unlimited
July 10, 2024 -

Been a customer for years, even when it was free with Prime. I've put up with the bugs, random crashes etc, as on the whole it works ok. I haven't been a prime subscriber for a long time, so it's £17.99 a month for family. Trying to use it today and the UI really is dogshit isn't it, hitting back and going to the useless homepage. Found a track I wanted to listen to, and clicked view album, it just sits there spinning. Took a faff to get it to show a track listing for the album so in a moment I cancelled the subscription and am moving to Spotify to see what that is all about.

Don't expect much except downvotes here but wondering if amazon might listen if feedback is given. It's got a great selection of music and sound quality but dear god the UI sucks.

Anyone else made the move? Is Spotify any better? I might just stop music streaming and go back to owning but must admit I've found some great bands through streaming and Amazon app in particular.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonmusic › why the fuck is amazon music prime unlimited an actual piece of shit?
r/AmazonMusic on Reddit: Why the fuck is Amazon Music Prime Unlimited an actual piece of Shit?
July 7, 2023 -

So, I've been using Amazon Music for years now, back before they changed the UI, back before Amazon Music Unlimited was a thing, and it still didn't have ads. But ever since 2019, with every passing update, the app just gets worse and worse. Initially it started with me having to go into my play queue and choosing the next song, because every time I used the buttons, it would tell me that I didn't have an Internet connection, so it couldn't play. Nowadays, it will randomly delete my downloaded songs, just to redownload them at a random time, automatically, and I can't just look at the download queue because it just doesn't show up there, but everytime I open the app, it tells me "Your Download has been Started" and it doesn't tell me which one. I CANT EVEN VIEW MY ARTISTS, it just tells me that none of my music matches the applied filters, then it gives me an option to reset the filters, and when I press that button, it loads for eternity. The app is also Laggy as shit, it clearly isn't made to handle large song libraries. The only reason that I've stuck with Amazon Music is because I get it for free.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/amazonecho › reverted to amazon music (not unlimited) and... what has happened?
r/amazonecho on Reddit: Reverted to Amazon Music (not Unlimited) and... what has happened?
May 2, 2023 -

I have a Prime membership, but I'm too tight to pay for Music Unlimited. Plain old Amazon Music has been "good enough" for years - I can live without a larger library.

6 months ago I took out a trial subscription to Music Unlimited for peanuts and enjoyed having a larger music library and no constant plugs for Unlimited. Yesterday that trial ended, and I reverted to Amazon Music... Except I didn't - I've returned to some dystopian shadow of what Amazon Music used to be, where maybe Alexa plays the song I asked for, but then continues to shuffle "similar" music that I definitely didn't ask for.

I looked back through the sub, and I can see I've missed a lot of drama re. this change at about the time I blindly switched to Unlimited. However, it's not clear what the current status us. Am I correct in thinking that the only way around the "shuffle" function is to upgrade to Unlimited, or is there some setting or trick I can use?

I read that I can turn off autoplay, which I did and can't see that it's made any difference at all - to be honest I'm not even sure what that is.

Not throwing my toys here, but I will likely just swap my Prime subscription for Spotify if there's no other way around this. Whilst the free delivery is nice, I see Prime as a "good enough" music service with the bonus of free delivery and don't really use any of the other benefits. I feel like there are better options than paying for both Prime and Music Unlimited. I'd prefer to continue using what I had though.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r › AmazonMusicUnlimited
Amazon Music Unlimited
December 6, 2016 - They told me you need to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited for the automatic sleep timer to be removed, this INCLUDES music you have PURCHASED and own within Amazon Music. I'm so annoyed about this right now, I only use Amazon music for music I listen to overnight so it doesn't mess up my Spotify generated playlists. Looks like I'll have to go back to playing through Bluetooth as apparently being able to play the music you've purchased while also paying them £80 a year for Prime music streaming without a timeout is too much to ask for.