Amazon Music (formerly Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. The public beta was launched on September 25, 2007. In January 2008, it became the first music store to sell music with no content management by four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner and Sony BMG), as well as many independents. Initially, all songs were sold in MP3 format with a variable bit rate of 256 kilobits per second without a watermark for each client or digital rights management; however, some songs now have a watermark. Licensing agreements with record companies restrict the countries in which music can be sold. As of January 2020, Amazon Music has 55 million subscribers. At launch, Amazon offered over 2 million songs from over 180,000 artists and over 20,000 labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group. In December 2007, Warner Music announced that it would offer its Amazon MP3 catalog, and in January 2008, Sony BMG followed suit. The current catalog is 29.1 million songs. In addition to digital purchases, Amazon Music also provides streaming music. Music Prime, a service that offers unlimited streaming of a limited music catalog, has been available to Amazon Prime subscribers at no extra cost in several countries since mid-2014.
Music Unlimited, a streaming service with a full catalog, is available as an upgrade or as a standalone
subscription from the end of 2016.