Amazon launching $5 a month music service exclusively for Echo

Amazon.com Inc is working on a music subscription service that would cost about $5 (roughly Rs 335) a month and would only work on its Echo hardware, tech news website Recode reported, citing sources. Amazon would like to launch the services in September, but has not finalized deals with major music labels and publishers, Recode reported. Amazon was preparing to launch a standalone music streaming subscription service at $9.99 (roughly Rs 671) per month, in line with major rivals, Reuters reported in June, citing sources. The Recode report said one sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month. Amazon was not immediately available to comment. Recently, Amazon has started allowing Echo users to choose third party apps as a source of music . Echo initially only used Amazon’s own music streaming service, Amazon Prime, to play back tracks on demand. Alexa is an intelligent voice assistant that is the technology behind Amazon’s Echo, a device with voice UI for living rooms. As Amazon’s Echo is not sold outside the United States, Amazon just launched a web version of Alexa . The purpose of the web site is to let developers and consumers get an idea of what Alexa is capable of, even if they do not own an Echo. With Inputs from Reuters