Amazon Prime Music Arrives in the U.K.

U.K. Amazon Prime subscribers can now tap into the e-retailer's Prime Music service for no extra charge.

More than a year after launching in the U.S., the streaming service is expanding to Britain, where members can access tens of thousands of albums from chart toppers to classic artists.

Choose from musicians and groups like One Direction, Royal Blood, George Ezra, Paolo Nutini, and Ella Henderson, not to mention Bob Dylan, Madonna, and David Bowie. Or choose from the hundreds of customized Prime Playlists. For a more personalized experience, mix your own tunes with Prime Music and download songs to a mobile device for offline playback.

"U.K. customers loved it when we added Prime Instant Video and unlimited photo storage into Prime last year," Christopher North, managing director at Amazon U.K., said in a statement. "We said then that we were just getting started, and today we're introducing Prime Music—more than a million songs from bestselling artists, plus hundreds of Prime Playlists hand-built by our team of music experts—all at no additional cost."

Other perks include ad-free listening, access on the Fire HD/HDX, Fire phone, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, iOS, Android, PC, and Mac platforms, as well as any Web browser.

"Prime Music is the latest great addition for our U.K. Prime members and we think they're going to love it," North said.

Prime members in the U.K. can start listening to Prime Music online now; iOS and Android users will have to download the latest Amazon Music app. Everyone else can sign up for a free 30-day trial, after which you will automatically be charged £79 per year for an annual Prime membership plan.

The move comes less than a month after Apple launched its own music service. Listeners pay $9.99 or $14.99 per month to access all music on iTunes, 24-hour live radio stations, and DJ-curated playlists.

:story: PC Magazine