Bezos is killing the streaming space with 'good enough' services all bundled into the same, basic Prime subscription.
The Prime Music app on iOS got updated last year and it even looks great.
Streaming music is a commodity, good luck fighting for scraps.
Today was the first time I've listened to pandora in close to a month. I've been listening to playlists through Prime Music .. the free version. I listen through our echos, my phone and my desktop. I haven't missed the tailored station I've built through Pandora over 10+ years. I think you are correct with "good enough."
Oh, and the Pandora Premium doesn't sound like much of a game changer unless I missed a killer feature:
Oh, and the video player is excellent. The "X-Ray" feature is pretty nifty when it's done well: it lists on-screen actors, name of music playing, and general trivia. The Prime Video Android app is surprisingly smooth as well, and in my opinion is as good as the Netflix app.
For me, it's essentially a free video service, as I already need Prime for the free shipping.
The experience on their own hardware is great; everything else is second-class.
I agree that streaming media is becoming a commodity. If Amazon made modern apps and shelled out some cash for better libraries, they could deal serious blows to Spotify and Netflix.
Yes, but for a very casual streaming music listener like myself who also has a pretty big music library on iTunes, free (with Prime) + Echo makes paying for any other music streaming service just not worth it. I'll take my free streaming and buy a song or album every now and then with the savings.
Amazon is somewhat inferior to Netflix in streaming. I have both in this case. But there are Amazon exclusives as well plus again, for many people, what's available with Prime is good enough to not make it worth paying for Netflix.
I would never pay for Prime Music on its own but it's a nice throw-in. I can also see why it would be good to have with an Amazon Echo.