How to use Amazon’s Prime Music Unlimited streaming service in 2019

In a lot of ways, I’m kind of old school about things. I bemoaned the fact that a car we bought in 2018 didn’t have a CD player. For some reason, it took me forever to adopt wireless headphones while jogging. And despite having used Amazon Prime for ordering everything from cat litter to batteries to mouth wash since 2006, I didn’t start using Prime Music until last year even though I had access to it for years before that.

Now that we do use Amazon Prime Music, I’m in hook, line, and sinker. No more do I miss the CD player in my car, because I have access to millions of songs through the Prime Music app on my phone.

If you already have Amazon Prime, you have access to some two million songs via the basic version of Prime Music. You can also increase that number of songs by approximately 50 million songs if you pay an additional $7.99 a month for Prime Music Unlimited.

When you use the Prime Music app on your phone, you can create playlists, download tunes for offline play (such as when you’re on an airplane), and you can tune into thousands of pre-made playlists created by Amazon employees, lists like Top 50 Most Played or Music for Exercise.

For the record, if you’re one of the few people who doesn’t have a Prime membership but does have an Amazon Echo in the house, you can enjoy free streaming music via Amazon’s Alexa, albeit with occasional ads.

1. Log into your Amazon account.
2. Click the box with the three parallel lines at the top left corner of the screen.
3. Click Amazon Music.

You will now be directed to a home page curated just for your Amazon Music experience. Use the menu on the left side of the screen to create, access, or add to playlists, to search via album, artist, or genre, and to generally create the musical experience you want.

Once a song is playing on Prime Music on your computer, you can pause, play, or skip tracks using controls at the top of the screen. The search bar at the top left will let you browse through all the many titles available. And of course, Amazon is all too happy to serve you countless suggestions there on the bulk of the page.

How to use Amazon Prime Music on your phone

1. Go to the app store or Google Play store and download the Amazon Music app.
2. Launch the app and then enter your Amazon login info (email and password on your Prime account, e.g.).
3. Tap MY MUSIC at the bottom of the app to get to your customized home screen, where you’ll see your playlists, from where you can create a new list, and where you can see the songs you (or anyone who shares the account) recently added music.
4. The basic Play/Pause control will display at the bottom of the screen while your music is playing. To get more controls, such as skip ahead or back, the song’s timeline, or the ability to shuffle or repeat, swipe up from the circle at the center bottom of the screen.

For my money, which again is $7.99 per month, Amazon Prime Music Unlimited is worth it. I have yet to think of a song I wanted to hear that I could not find.

My Unlimited subscription also dispelled one of the only major issues I had with the basic version of Prime Music: songs disappearing from the catalog. At least a few times a week, I’d find that a song from one of my playlists had vanished and was no longer available. Not a huge issue, but certainly a frustration.

One other issue is that if you want to be able to play Prime Music on more than one device simultaneously, you need to upgrade your subscription. That or you and your SO can engage in a constant battle of brinksmanship as you strive for sonic supremacy.