Amazon to take on Spotify with own Music streaming service

Amazon is planning a foray into subscription-based music streaming service. The move will put it in direct competition with Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora and Google Music.

The ecommerce major is working on licensing of tunes for the music streaming service. Steve Boom, VP at digital music division of Amazon, who is also leading this charge is holding meetings with the senior officials of the team; sources told New York Post.

According to the sources, the company is trying to become a bigger player in the entertainment distribution space that includes books, music, movies and television.

Currently, Amazon offers this service free of cost to its Prime members. It charges a yearly fee of $99 (€91.4, £69.5) for prime membership, which including free access to over a million. However, going forward it may charge the customers separately.

Amazon recently launched the service in Germany and Japan. Last quarter, the Prime music streaming hours had increased by three times. Music streaming service a growing market the companies, including Amazon. While Amazon did not reveal the number of customers using Prime Music, a report shared Amazon has over 54 million people are Prime members in the US.

And it will have to face tough competition from Spotify that comes ahead of all the players in this space. Last year, Spotify announced that it has reached more than 20 million subscribers and more than 75 million active users. Apple, on the other hand, shared that it has over ten million music lovers are on its platform.