What Amazon Music can do that rival streaming services can't - CNET

Firth pointed out that although the music-streaming service itself is relatively young, Amazon has been selling people music for years as CDs and MP3s. "We know what [customer] tastes are and what they buy," he said. "Very few of them spend the £120 a year it would require to subscribe to a typical music-streaming service.

"In fact over 70 percent of them spend less than £30 a year," he said.

Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal all cost $9.99 per month, which works out to about $120 per year. Amazon Prime costs $99 per year in the US and £79 in the UK.

Being part of the established Amazon empire also gives the streaming service a head start in personalising your music. "If you've bought CDs or MP3s from us in the past 10 years," explained Firth, "that gives us a lot of history beyond just your first stream. That allows us to tailor things for you early on."

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Amazon's wider retail ecosystem also benefits artists and record labels. In a music industry struggling to make money from actual music, that diversified revenue stream is hugely attractive.

Firth highlighted Coldplay's album "A Head Full of Dreams," the most popular long-player in Amazon Music's first year in the UK. "What Amazon can do for any band," he said, "is offer them the ability to reach their fans through any medium they want. We can sell your vinyl, we can sell your CDs, we can sell your MP3s."

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And it doesn't stop there. "We could be selling the book, the T-shirt, the DVD all in one place...With Coldplay we offered a ticket offer so customers who preordered [the album] had 24-hour priority access to [buy tickets for the band's] tour.

"When you can bring all that together then you're able to offer something to the industry, to artists, to labels that others can't," he said. Indeed, "A Head Full of Dreams" was conspicuous by its absence from Spotify on the first day of release. (It's now available on the streaming service.)

Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify have been criticised by stars including Adele, Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke about the meagre royalties trickling back from streaming services. Firth noted "Prime Music is a different model than the other streaming services out there, so it's a different sort of deal," and suggested, "it's the record labels and publishers who pay the artists."

He doesn't see Amazon being drawn into the arms race of big-name exclusives being waged by Tidal and Apple Music with new music from the likes of Kanye West and Drake. So far, Amazon Music has only dipped its toes in the water by funding a handful of specially recorded songs by popular artists for themed playlists.

"Never say never," said Firth of possible artist or album exclusives, "but right now our focus is on playlists."