Smart speaker ownership has almost tripled since last year: 18% of respondents report owning at least one smart speaker, up from 7% last year. Not surprisingly, it found that products like Amazon Echo and Google Home are in hockey-stick growth mode.

The latest Infinite Dial shows that Amazon's strategy is paying off. One of the newest categories of data that the study tracks is smart speaker ownership. This is especially remarkable given that Apple tried to convince the major record labels to let it charge $5/month for Apple Music and the labels said no.

It charges Alexa device owners $4/month for the service, though only for use on that device. But Amazon's strategy was to differentiate its service by tying it to Alexa via the Echo device, to make it easier and cheaper to get music on demand.Īmazon charges Amazon Prime members $8/month for access to Amazon Music Unlimited instead of the usual $10/month for other paid services.

Whereas Amazon MP3 had an initial advantage over iTunes of offering DRM-free music downloads (which Apple emulated a year later), Amazon Music Unlimited initially looked like a lesser me-too offering compared to Spotify and all the others in that crowded space - Apple Music, Google Play Music, Tidal, etc.

Amazon mp3 digital music