(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) said on Monday it has introduced an ad-supported free version of its music streaming service Amazon Music, taking on rival Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) Technology which has nearly 140 million users for its free version.
Amazon offers paid plans for its music service starting at $9.99 per month and it is also part of its prime bundle. The company launched a free version of its music service for Alexa users on Echo devices in September.
Spotify, the world's most popular music streaming service, also offers a "freemium" model that includes a free ad-supported version along with a paid ad-free version at $9.99 per month.
However, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Inc's Apple Music offers only paid subscription service for $9.99 per month and accounts for nearly a fifth of the paid music streaming market, according to Counterpoint Research.
Amazon shares were up nearly 0.5%, while those of rival Spotify fell about 5%.