Amazon Reportedly Considering a $5/Month Spotify Alternative — With A Catch

Amazon is reportedly considering a music streaming service similar to Spotify or Apple Music for half the price, with one big catch: You have to listen to the music on an Amazon Echo.

The tech news site Recode, citing "industry sources," reported the news Tuesday and said Amazon could launch the $5-per-month service as early as September. But Amazon "has yet to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers," Recode reported.

In an email to Patch, Amazon spokeswoman Kate Scarpa said, "We don’t have anything to share right now, but will let you know if that changes."

The streaming service Recode describes could be a game-changer, at least in terms of price. Spotify and Apple Music, the two most popular streaming services available right now, both cost $10 per month for premium services. Amazon's would be half as much.

But customers would have to drop $179.99 on an Amazon Echo, which could be a deterrent from some people. Echo is Amazon's 9.25-inch speaker that is equipped with the Alexa voice-recognition software. It can play Spotify, tell you the weather and even order you a pizza just by you talking to it.

But it only runs on Wi-Fi. One of the biggest draws for Spotify and Apple Music are the ability to stream over a phone wherever you have cellular data.

Amazon already offers some music streaming through Amazon Prime, but it doesn't have near the catalog of other services. And Reuters reported in June that it is planning to launch a standalone music subscription service for $10 per month.

The standard $10-per-month service could launch alongside the Echo-only option, according to Recode.

Read the full Recode story here.

Image via Amazon