Spotify or Amazon Music?

In the Amazon Music vs Spotify decision, Amazon Music Unlimited is the better buy for UK listeners who already pay for Amazon Prime: it costs £11.99 a month or £119 a year with Prime, against £12.99 a month (£155.88 a year) for Spotify Premium Individual, and includes lossless HD, Ultra HD up to 24-bit/192 kHz and Dolby Atmos spatial audio at no extra cost. Spotify Premium keeps the edge for playlists and discovery, podcasts, 15 hours a month of audiobooks and Spotify Connect hardware, and without Prime the two services cost the same £12.99.

Prices have climbed across the board. Spotify Premium Individual has risen from £9.99 to £12.99 in three £1 steps since 2023, a 30% increase; Apple Music rose to £11.99 on 17 July 2026 and Tidal to £12.99 from August 2026. Amazon raised Music Unlimited by £1 in February 2026 as well, but kept a £1 monthly discount for Prime members and a £119 annual plan that works out at £9.92 a month. All prices below come from each provider's UK pages on 29 September 2026.

How much do Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify and rivals cost in the UK?

Amazon Music Unlimited costs £11.99 a month for Prime members and £12.99 without Prime, the same £12.99 that Spotify Premium Individual and Tidal charge, while YouTube Music Premium has the cheapest individual monthly plan at £10.99. Every figure in the table except Tidal's comes from the provider's own UK page on 29 September 2026.

• Single Device plan:Amazon Music Unlimited on one Echo or Fire TV costs £6.99 a month, without HD, Ultra HD or spatial audio, according to Amazon's Music Unlimited FAQ.
• Free trials:Amazon's Music Unlimited page lists a free trial for eligible new subscribers until 9 October 2026 (three months without Prime and four with Prime on 29 September 2026); the terms on that page apply and renewal is at £12.99 (£11.99 with Prime). Spotify lists one month free on Premium Individual for users new to Premium; Apple Music, YouTube Music and Deezer each list one month for eligible new members.
• Students: Amazon verifies student status through SheerID and applies the £5.99 price for up to four years.

Has Spotify put its prices up? Every UK rise since 2023

Yes: Spotify has raised Premium Individual in the UK three times since 2023, by £1 each time, from £9.99 to £12.99. Amazon, Apple and Tidal all raised UK prices in 2026, while YouTube Music and Deezer have held their individual prices since 2023 and 2021.

• Spotify Premium: £9.99 to £10.99 in 2023 and £11.99 in April 2024, then £12.99 after an October 2025 announcement; Duo rose from £16.99 to £17.99 and Family from £19.99 to £21.99, with Student unchanged at £5.99 (Music Business Worldwide, 27 October 2025).
• Amazon Music Unlimited: individual rose to £12.99 and the Prime price to £11.99, with Family up from £19.99 to £21.99, for new customers from 3 February 2026 and for existing customers at renewals on or after 10 March 2026 (Music Business Worldwide, 5 February 2026). The Single Device plan rose from £5.99 to £6.99 from 27 May 2026, per Amazon.
• Apple Music: £10.99 to £11.99 and Family from £16.99 to £19.99 on 17 July 2026, Student unchanged at £5.99; the first rise since October 2022 (NME, What Hi-Fi).
• Tidal:£10.99 to £12.99 from the first billing date on or after 3 August 2026, according to Tidal's email to subscribers quoted by What Hi-Fi on 1 July 2026.
• YouTube Music Premium:£9.99 to £10.99 in August 2023 (Cordbusters), and still £10.99 on YouTube's UK page.
• Deezer: Premium rose 20% to £11.99 in 2021 and Family by £2 to £19.99 in 2023 (Music Week).

Spotify's £3 rise since 2023 adds £36 a year to a single listener's bill. Amazon's February 2026 rise was also £1 on the individual plan, but the £119 annual plan for Prime members sits £36.88 a year below Spotify Premium Individual.

Is Amazon Music Prime enough, or is Unlimited worth it?

Amazon Music Prime suits background listening, but Amazon Music Unlimited is worth £119 a year to any Prime member who wants to pick specific songs, listen offline or hear lossless and spatial audio. Amazon describes the two tiers this way on its UK pages and app listings:

• Amazon Music Prime (included with Prime): all the music ad-free, shuffle play of any artist, album or playlist, and the most ad-free top podcasts. No on-demand track choice, no HD and no spatial audio.
• Amazon Music Unlimited: 100 million songs on demand, offline listening, unlimited skips, lossless HD, Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio, plus one audiobook a month from the Audible catalogue.
• Without Prime or Unlimited: an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations on Alexa devices, free.

The Prime-member price is where Amazon Music Unlimited pulls ahead. Prime costs £8.99 a month or £95 a year after a 30-day free trial, and membership cuts Music Unlimited from £12.99 to £11.99 a month and unlocks the £119 annual plan, which saves £24.88 a year over paying £11.99 monthly. The Family plan's £219 annual price is also for Prime members only.

Which sounds better, Amazon Music Unlimited or Spotify?

Amazon Music Unlimited has the higher ceiling: Ultra HD reaches 24-bit/192 kHz at an average 3,730 kbps and Dolby Atmos is included, while Spotify Premium's lossless tier stops at 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC and Spotify offers no spatial audio. Spotify began rolling out lossless to UK Premium subscribers on 10 September 2025, at no extra cost.

The hardware sets the real limit. Amazon says iPhones and Android phones play HD and Ultra HD up to 24-bit/48 kHz without extra equipment, and need an external DAC for 96 kHz or 192 kHz. Spotify says Bluetooth lacks the bandwidth for lossless audio; Amazon says aptX HD and LDAC headphones can carry up to 24-bit/48 kHz. The Sony WH-1000XM6, £349.00 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), supports LDAC; more options sit in the best wireless headphones UK 2026 and best wireless earbuds UK 2026 guides.

Mobile data is the UK catch. Amazon puts HD at up to 5.5 MB a minute and Ultra HD at up to 12 MB a minute, so an hour of Ultra HD uses up to 720 MB and a 10 GB SIM allowance covers about 14 hours. Amazon recommends 5 to 10 Mbps for Ultra HD streaming.

The Amazon Echo Studio (2025) is the Echo that shows what Amazon Music Unlimited can do: Amazon lists Echo Studio among the devices that play Ultra HD, and its 3.1.1 layout pairs a 3.75-inch woofer with three 2.25-inch full-range drivers, Dolby Atmos and room adaptation. It costs £174.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), is 40% smaller than the original Echo Studio according to Amazon, and pairs with a second Echo Studio or a Fire TV for home cinema sound.

Does Amazon Music work on Android, iPhone and in a web browser?

Yes: Amazon Music runs on Android phones, iPhone and iPad, in a desktop browser at music.amazon.co.uk, in desktop apps for Windows and Mac, in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, on every Echo and on Fire TV. Spotify covers the same ground and more third-party hardware.

• Android: Amazon says most Android devices from 2014 onwards play HD and Ultra HD up to 48 kHz, and Chromecast (2nd and 3rd gen) plays HD.
• iPhone and iPad:devices on iOS 11 or later play HD and Ultra HD up to 24-bit/48 kHz, and AirPlay carries HD. The Individual plan can be bought inside the app, but the Amazon Music UK App Store listing prices it at £13.99 a month through Apple billing, £2 more than the Prime price, and Amazon excludes Apple-billed subscriptions from promotions. The Spotify UK App Store listing has no in-app purchases, so Spotify Premium is bought on Spotify's website.
• Web and desktop:the web player at music.amazon.co.uk needs no install, and the Windows and Mac apps add an exclusive mode that lets Amazon Music output the highest quality the audio device supports. Spotify's web player is limited to AAC 256 kbps for Premium, per Spotify.
• In the car: Amazon Music works in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and its Car Mode adds larger buttons and Alexa voice commands.
• Alexa, Echo and Fire TV: every Echo from the 2nd generation plays HD, according to Amazon, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, £46.99 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026), plays Dolby Atmos music. The best streaming stick UK 2026 guide compares it with Roku and Google TV.

What does each music service cost over one and three years?

A Prime member on Amazon Music Unlimited's £119 annual plan pays £357.00 over three years at today's prices, £110.64 less than Spotify Premium Individual at £467.64. Only Deezer's annual plan costs less among lossless services, and Deezer stops at CD quality with no spatial audio.

• Amazon Music Unlimited at £119 a year is the cheapest plan in the table with both hi-res audio and Dolby Atmos: £24.88 a year less than Apple Music and £36.88 less than Tidal.
• Without Prime, Amazon Music Unlimited and Spotify Premium cost the same £467.64 over three years, so the choice rests on features.
• Buying in the iPhone app is the most expensive way to get Amazon Music Unlimited: £72.00 more over three years than the Prime monthly price.

Is Prime plus Amazon Music Unlimited better value than Spotify Premium alone?

For £58.12 a year more than Spotify Premium alone, £4.84 a month, a listener on annual plans gets both Amazon Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited: £214.00 a year against £155.88. On monthly billing the gap widens to £95.88 a year.

The £58.12 buys the Prime benefits Amazon lists on its UK Prime page: One-Day Delivery, unlimited Same-Day delivery on eligible orders over £20 in selected postcodes, Prime Video with limited ads, Prime Reading, unlimited full-resolution photo storage in Amazon Photos and Prime-only sales. The next is Prime Big Deal Days on 6 and 7 October 2026, covered in the Prime Big Deal Days 2026 UK tech deals guide and, for PC gaming hardware, the Prime Big Deal Days PC gaming deals guide. A listener who would never use those perks pays less with Spotify Premium alone; a household that already pays for Prime saves £36.88 a year by choosing Music Unlimited.

Which music service is cheapest for families, couples and students?

YouTube Music Premium Family is the cheapest confirmed six-person plan at £203.88 a year, but Amazon Music Unlimited Family on the £219 annual plan for Prime members costs £44.88 a year less than Spotify Premium Family and £20.88 less than Apple Music Family, with hi-res audio and Dolby Atmos included.

• Couples: Spotify Premium Duo at £17.99 a month is cheaper than Amazon Music Unlimited Family at £21.99 a month, but the £219 annual Family plan costs only £3.12 a year more than Spotify Premium Duo and covers up to six people. Amazon offers no Duo plan.
• Students: Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify Premium, Apple Music and Deezer all charge £5.99 a month (£71.88 a year); YouTube Music Premium charges £5.49 (£65.88).
• Family rules: Amazon requires family members to be at least 13 with their own Amazon account, and allows six streams at once; Spotify requires Family and Duo members to live at the same address.

Where does Spotify still beat Amazon Music?

Spotify Premium still wins on discovery, podcasts, audiobook hours, hardware support and social features, and for many listeners those outweigh a £1 monthly saving.

• Discovery: Spotify builds personal playlists such as daylist, Mix and its DJ, and had 281 million Premium subscribers at the end of September 2025 (Music Business Worldwide), which feeds its recommendations.
• Podcasts and audiobooks: Spotify lists 6 million podcast titles and 15 hours a month of listening from more than 250,000 audiobooks on its UK App Store listing. Amazon Music Unlimited includes one audiobook a month, which suits long books but not several short ones.
• Spotify Connect: Spotify says lossless plays over Spotify Connect on Sony, Bose, Samsung and Sennheiser hardware, with Sonos and Amazon devices promised for October 2025. Echo speakers play Spotify too, so an Echo does not force a switch.
• Social features: Jam lets friends share one queue, and Wrapped sums up each listening year; neither transfers to Amazon Music.

Listeners who live in podcasts, share playlists with friends or run a Spotify Connect hi-fi system should stay on Spotify Premium. So should anyone without Prime who never listens in lossless: at £12.99 each, the two services cost the same.

Amazon Music vs Apple Music: which is better?

Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music are level on sound, both reaching 24-bit/192 kHz lossless with Dolby Atmos, and level on the £11.99 monthly price for Prime members. Amazon wins on the £119 annual plan and on Alexa; Apple wins on iPhone integration and the cheaper £19.99 monthly Family plan.

• Price: Apple Music has cost £11.99 since 17 July 2026 and has no annual plan on its UK page; Apple One bundles start at £18.95 a month. For Prime members, Amazon Music Unlimited Family at £219 a year (£18.25 a month) undercuts Apple Music Family.
• Platforms:Apple lists Android, Windows, a web player at music.apple.com and Amazon Alexa among Apple Music's platforms, so neither service locks listeners to one phone.
• Hi-res: Apple says 24-bit/192 kHz needs an external DAC, the same limit Amazon gives for iPhone.

iPhone owners without Prime pay £1 a month less for Apple Music than for Amazon Music Unlimited. The wider trade-offs between the two phone platforms sit in iPhone vs Android UK 2026.

Which Echo speaker suits Amazon Music Unlimited?

The Amazon Echo Studio (2025) at £174.99 is the only one of these that Amazon lists for Ultra HD, the Amazon Echo Dot Max at £59.99 is the value pick for a kitchen or bedroom, and the Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) at £29.99 is the cheapest way to put Alexa and Amazon Music in a room. All prices are Amazon UK at the time of writing (September 2026).

Value pick

Amazon Echo Dot Max

£59.99

0.8-inch tweeter and 2.5-inch woofer, 53 Hz to 16 kHz, and a Zigbee, Matter and Thread hub.

View at Amazon UK

Cheapest Echo

Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen)

£29.99

1.73-inch speaker in a 340 g body; plays Amazon Music in HD like every Echo from the 2nd gen.

View at Amazon UK

With a screen

Amazon Echo Show 8

£119.99

8.7-inch display, spatial audio, a 13 MP camera and a Zigbee, Matter and Thread hub.

View at Amazon UK

Amazon says the Amazon Echo Dot Max has three times the bass of the Echo Dot (2022 release), and both it and the Amazon Echo Studio (2025) pair with a second unit of the same model. The Amazon Echo Show 8 adds an 8.7-inch screen for the same Amazon Music library. For a computer desk rather than a kitchen, the best desktop speakers UK 2026 guide ranks wired and Bluetooth options.

How do playlists move from Spotify to Amazon Music?

Amazon Music imports playlists itself: Amazon's UK playlist import page says the Android and iOS apps bring playlists over from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, SoundCloud, Deezer and more, with tracks subject to availability.

1. Scan the QR code on Amazon's playlist import page with an Android or iOS phone.
2. Follow the on-screen steps in the Amazon Music app to pick the playlists to import.
3. Find the imported playlists in the Amazon Music library.

TuneMyMusic, a long-running web service, does the same job between most platforms. What does not carry over:

• Listening history, so personalised mixes restart from zero.
• Downloads, which are locked to each app and must be saved again.
• Followed podcasts, audiobook progress, Wrapped and Jam sessions.
• Tracks missing from the new catalogue, which drop out of playlists.

Running both services through a free trial before cancelling the old one avoids a gap; Amazon's terms say cancelling before the trial ends avoids all payments.

Verdict: Amazon Music Unlimited or Spotify Premium?

Amazon Music Unlimited is the better choice for most UK listeners who pay for Prime: £119 a year against £155.88 for Spotify Premium Individual, £110.64 less over three years, with Ultra HD up to 24-bit/192 kHz, Dolby Atmos and one audiobook a month included, and apps for Android, iPhone, the web, Alexa and Fire TV. Spotify Premium remains the pick for podcast listeners, playlist sharers and Spotify Connect owners, and without Prime the two cost the same £12.99. The Amazon Echo Studio (2025) at £174.99 is the speaker that makes the most of Music Unlimited.