Ad-supported Amazon Music comes to Alexa devices

Amazon announced today that Alexa-enabled devices can now play ad-supported music from Amazon Music for free. The announcement comes a day after Google announced a similar move with YouTube Music and Google Assistant-powered devices.

Keep in mind that folks can only listen to an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations for free — they can’t pick and choose songs, artists, or albums. That said, people can pick stations based on a song, artist, era, and genre.

If you want on-demand music, you”ll need to either get an Amazon Prime membership for access to Amazon Prime Music or the standalone Amazon Music Unlimited. Prime Music offers over two million songs at no additional cost, while Music Unlimited features over 50 million songs.

Speaking of which, only people without a Prime or Music Unlimited membership can listen to ad-supported music on Alexa devices.

Amazon said that free ad-supported Amazon Music listening on Alexa-enabled devices is available beginning today in the United States. Supported devices include Amazon’s Echo line and third-party devices with Alexa support. The online retailer didn’t announce the feature’s availability in other countries, though that’s presumably coming sometime soon.

Coinciding with Amazon’s announcement is an ongoing sale on Echo devices. The small Echo Dot is going for $40 ($10 off), while the regular Echo and Echo Plus are going for $79.99 ($20 off) and $150 ($20 off), respectively. Lastly, the second-generation Echo Show is going for $190 ($40 off).

All of the Echo devices support Alexa, with the Echo Show also featuring a 10.1-inch display. They’re all good speakers for their prices, but the discounts certainly help.

You can grab the discounted Echo devices at the links below.

NEXT: Amazon may take on Apple with AirPods-like earbuds