First Amazon Prime, now Amazon Music gets a price increase

You'll pay 12.6% for Amazon Music Unlimited starting next month

Amazon Music app on iOS (Image credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images)

Amazon Music subscription prices will increase next month for Prime members, and this news comes to us almost exactly one month after Amazon Prime memberships got a similar price hike. Like I told you last month, there’s a way to beat it.

First, here’s how much money you’ll pay starting on May 5, 2022:

• Amazon Music Unlimited plan (monthly): $7.99 to $8.99/mo (12.6% increase)

• Amazon Music Unlimited Individual plan (yearly): $79 to 89/yr (12.6% increase)

• Amazon Single-Device plan: $3.99 to $4.99/mo (25% increase)

Who’s on the hook for the Amazon increase?

You’re only going to be saving $1, not $2, per month through your Prime membership, even though the price of Prime has increased. Today’s Amazon price change notice makes no mention of a price increase for non-Prime members, who will continue to pay $9.99/mo for Music Unlimited. Also absent are any increases for the Family Plan (which currently costs $14.99/mo with a six family member cap) and the Student Plan ($0.99/mo for the duration of your accredited college or university enrollment).

The last time that Amazon revealed its subscriber count was two years ago, and the number was 55 million. It’s likely to have hooked even more people with its Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday sweetheart deals for Music Unlimited – last year users were able to get four months for free before that $7.99 monthly plan kicked in. Subscribers of Music Unlimited have access to “90 million songs in HD” and millions of podcasts,” according to Amazon.

Can’t beat Amazon Music price hike this time

I explained last month that there was a sneaky way to beat the Amazon Prime price increase by one year. All you had to do was cancel the auto-renew and gift yourself the membership ahead of the price hike. When your membership ends (mine ends in December), you use the gifted Prime subscription. Easy. Sadly, there’s no way to gift yourself – or anyone – Music Unlimited. They’re wise to us.

Your only option to escape the $89 fee is to sign up for the $79 service before May 5, or see if your renewal is before that date (there’s no way to force it). But prospective new Music Unlimited service may want to wait for an Amazon Prime Unlimited deal, as Amazon Prime Day 2022 may only be a little over two months from now.

• Save money elsewhere: PlayStation Plus discount code and Xbox Game Pass 12 month membership promo code