Music and photos from Amazon’s Prime services get pretty bad reviews online. Above all, users are annoyed by updates that limit the functions of apps.
Amazon announced major changes to its Prime Music service in November. Many customers then looked forward to an update with improvements and new functions. But far from it, the update came with some feature degradation and limitations. Amazon Photos now seems to be affected by the internet giant’s new sales policy. This is shown by the online reviews by angry users.
with amazon prime music ban announcement
announced in amazon november Proud that over 100 million songs and some ad-free podcasts and radio stations are now freely available to Prime members. In Amazon’s PR parlance, it was marketed as giving “Prime members” on-demand access to a select selection of all-access playlists without restriction. What Prime members could not imagine was the degradation and limitations in playback. it’s all the more bitter because prices for amazon prime just picked up. But what exactly are changes?
Compulsory shuffle for Prime members on Amazon Music
Hidden behind the advertised announcement is an automatic random playback of songs and entire albums. Although a Prime member doesn’t have to hear any ads, with the new update they lose control of their playlists and saved albums. Customers are similarly annoyed. You angrily write in the Amazon forums:
“Why don’t I have access to my self-made playlist?? I don’t see any reason for it. Since then I have to listen to someone else’s “MÜLL” which I don’t even want to listen to, it’s an impudence! And you only have an hour I can say “continue” 6x!
“I can hardly play a song anymore. Instead, a random playback starts without asking. But of course I want to choose what I listen to myself! Will this become permanent or is there a solution to this problem Is?”
Amazon noted for Amazon Echo customers that they can only play their playlists in random mode. However, the issue affects app and desktop playback as well. Even if a specific song or album is selected, the algorithm will automatically play similar songs. It is no longer possible to listen to certain music with a Prime subscription. During the happy moment, a random song from the band that was just clicked will also be played. Skipping songs only works 6 times in an hour. If you want to change songs more often, you’ll need an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, which costs €8.99 per month.
Amazon Music Unlimited push?
Some users see this as an attempt to force users into a paid subscription. And indeed, only with an additional subscription is freed from unreliable algorithms of random playback.
Overall, Amazon offers three different membership model From – Free, Prime & Unlimited Music. It’s arguable that Amazon’s poor Prime Music features aren’t driving customers toward Spotify’s competition. Competition membership is a bit more expensive at 9.99 Euros.
Read also: For whom is an Amazon Prime subscription worthwhile?
Amazon Photos users are also affected
The same problem of malfunctioning seems to be repeated after updating Amazon Photos as well. A comprehensive update changed many functions and design. This doesn’t go down well with customers at first, who, for example, post a number of critical reviews on the Google Play Store page. It looks like some features of the Amazon Photos app have gone horribly wrong.
Here’s how to get tons of bad reviews:
“The app may look modern but unfortunately the app has become completely unusable. It is not at all intuitive and useful to use.
“Great. Now you can’t just select and add images to albums. Because uploading photos is difficult (or even better, you have to upload them in advance).
“In the new version of the application, I can no longer see which of the displayed photos have already been uploaded and which were previously only saved locally.”
There also seem to be problems with the landscape format, which can no longer be rotated and is therefore automatically reduced in size. At least only the Android version of the Photos app is affected. To what extent the previously free functions in this app will cost money in the near future, it cannot be said yet. However, the example of Amazon Music has made it clear how quickly self-evident functions can be converted into payment models.
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