Amazon Music recently added 98 million songs to the streaming platform’s music library free of charge with no ads for Prime members. But some users are not happy.
Before the music catalog expansion, Amazon Prime members could access up to two million songs to stream through a simple search, and download songs for offline listening with no internet service. But with the new update, the music can only be played in shuffle mode, which means that users cannot play individual songs from artists, albums, or playlists. To do so, users must spend $9 dollars a month extra on Amazon Music Unlimited.
Such changes are riling up some Amazon music users who are going to Twitter to complain over the loss of certain features.
One user tweeted at Amazon Help asking for a partial refund because she lost all of the music that she purchased prior to the update. “Your music app is now unusable,” she tweeted. “I might as well turn on the radio.”
Another user tweeted that the platform is in “absolute shambles” after his daughter’s Amazon echo smart speaker started playing random songs on shuffle.
Amazon Music users are also expressing their frustrations over LinkedIn. Some said that their playlists have disappeared and that they cannot replay songs. Others were so frustrated with the update that they said they dropped Amazon Music entirely to stream music on rival platforms like Spotify and Pandora.
An Amazon spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment ahead of publication.
Amazon expanded its music catalog to capitalize on an increased demand for a wider music selection among current members, Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, told the Wall Street Journal. Launched in 2007, Amazon Music jumped from 2 million to more than 68 million users globally, which is 10% of the total music streaming market, according to data from Earthweb.
Still, the number of Amazon Music users fall behind its rivals. Apple Music, in comparison, has 88 million users and Spotify has 433 million.
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