Amazon Music’s free tier is more advertising play than Spotify killer, analysts say

Amazon.com Inc. Echo devices sit on display for sale inside an Amazon 4-star store in Berkeley, California, U.S., on Friday, March 29, 2019. Amazon's new franchise of retail stores, called Amazon 4-star, stock a potpourri of items with positive reviews on the company's online retail site. Photographer: Cayce Clifford/Bloomberg

LOS ANGELES: When news began to spread last week that Amazon Music’s long-anticipated free streaming tier was imminent, headlines emerged about its threat to Spotify and Apple Music, with some stories saying that Spotify’s stock price dropped in response to the news. 

But not only was today’s launch of the free tier basically a soft one – for the moment, it’s a limited service, only available to US customers of its Alexa voice assistant, and when the listener requests a song, it leads to an Amazon playlist or station, rather than an album – analysts say that it’s more of a bigger play by the company to boost its advertising income and sales of its Echo speakers, and less of an attempt to wrest customers and market share from Spotify and Apple Music.