We have kept it a secret that we are huge fans of Amazon Music. In addition to reliable customer service and an intuitive user experience, Amazon Prime member benefits stack up nicely against nearly any online service available in the US.
One of those benefits is Amazon Music, which includes over 2,000,000 titles and comes in at no additional cost for Amazon Prime members. In addition to a robust catalog of free music (a $9.99 per month cost savings in itself for existing Napster and Spotify premium members), Prime Music also gives members access to thousands of stations and playlists, along with the ability to listen offline (as you would with any paid app) and thousands of podcast episodes (if Apple/Android’s solution isn’t doing it for you).
If you still need to utilize this incredible free-with-your-Prime-account service, we recommend downloading the Prime Music app. All you’ll need is your Amazon account login to get started.
Assuming you have downloaded the app, you’ve likely wondered how to best use Amazon’s two million song catalog (a robust number of titles available, but limited compared to paid music streaming services).
Not to worry, we’ve got you covered!
Creating a great Amazon Music playlist
Amazon Music users can create playlists and add songs based on their interests. The feature works similarly to Napster’s playlist feature; only Amazon Music’s catalog changes regularly. In addition to allowing users to create a killer playlist from the free titles in Prime Music’s catalog, Amazon also uses your listening history to make suggestions when new titles are available.
We recommend categorizing your playlist into activities for the best results. For example, you could create a playlist for work, the gym, or lounging around the house with friends. The ultimate goal is to select music based on your interests for various use cases. This way, Amazon has enough data to make relevant suggestions in the future.
Building your playlist in the app
Creating your playlist is straightforward. Again, the trick is to create various playlists for the best results. Follow these steps to create a playlist on Amazon Music.
- Find a song you want to add to your playlist – you can do this by searching for a title or selecting one from an existing Amazon playlist or station.
- You’ll notice when you search up a title; you’ll get several options to choose from, namely the artists associated with your search term, any albums that may be relevant, and songs that share common attributes (as well as the piece you’re searching for itself).
- Double check the song’s availability in Amazon Music – this one can be frustrating: while any search term you input will likely net the results you want, not all songs are available for Prime members (this membership level is limited to 2,000,000 songs), and as such, some songs are available in what Prime calls Unlimited.
- Verify your song is available in Prime Music (not Unlimited).
- If the song is available in Prime Music, click it to open the artist, album, and song interface (it should begin playing automatically).
- Once the song starts playing, click the vertical tri-dot options button in the top right-hand corner of the screen to bring up the menu.
- Click Add to Playlist.
- You’ll then be prompted to Select a cloud playlist, click + New Playlist to create a new playlist.
- Type in your playlist name.
- Press Save.
- You should see the playlist you just created added to your playlist list.
- Select the playlist you’d like to add the song to.
Simple enough, right? Incredibly, it is, and creating enough playlists with songs you enjoy in various settings will help Amazon identify more songs from its monthly catalog of 2,000,000 titles to suggest to you. This way, you don’t have to constantly look for songs you may like from month to month as new titles are added, and older ones are removed. Amazon will do all the work for you.
Note: Keep in mind that there is a 2500-song limit on each playlist.
As mentioned above, Amazon Music also offers a variety of Podcasts at no cost. Popular podcasts like Smartless, All There is With Anderson Cooper, Alien Encounters, and more are all accessible to Prime Members.
Pro tip: Playlists can be created for podcasts as well. Enjoy!