The Amazon Music Store (formerly Amazon MP3) combines one of the largest MP3 catalogs in the world with the convenience of easy-click purchasing.
Amazon Music Unlimited & Prime Music
Amazon Music Unlimited is a new streaming service that has launched in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States. Listen to any song, anywhere: Tens of millions of songs with new releases from today's most popular artists. Listen ad-free with unlimited skips. Download for offline listening. Learn more about Amazon Music Unlimited here.
Prime Music as a whole is curated. Not all TuneCore content is currently in the service and content may move in and out of the service based on curation. Also, content only becomes eligible for streaming to Amazon Prime customers 90 days after the release date.
Amazon Prime customers can listen ad-free to over a million songs and hundreds of expert-programmed playlists. Prime Music is available on Kindle Fire HD/HDX, iOS, Android, PC, and Mac and customers can download their favorite songs and Prime Playlists for offline playback on mobile devices. To check out the service, visit www.primemusic.com.
Please note that your music may not be available for streaming on Amazon Music Unlimited until Amazon Music Unlimited is able to license certain music publishing rights for the underlying musical composition(s) of your sound recording(s).
Stores and streaming services like Amazon Music Unlimited lean on companies such as Music Reports Inc. and the Harry Fox Agency to clear those rights. Therefore, in certain cases, your music can’t go live on Amazon Music Unlimited until whoever publishes the musical composition behind your music is registered with these companies.
If you both wrote and self-published the music you’re distributing, you’re welcome to sign up for TuneCore’s Publishing Administration service. Once you sign up, TuneCore will, on your behalf, take care of getting your music properly registered and licensed to be streamed and sold in any major store.
Go Live Time
It takes 1-3 business days for content to go live in Amazon Music.
Amazon Music & Prime Music Store Territories
Amazon Music is currently available in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
Prime Music is available in Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, and United States.
Amazon Music Unlimited is available in Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, the United States, and Uruguay.
How Amazon Music Sells Your Music
Amazon Music sells your music via:
| DOWNLOADS | STREAMS |
|---|---|
| Yes | Yes |
*It is also possible for you to receive streaming revenue in your account through Amazon's Cloud Drive/Player.
You may sell your music on Amazon Music according to different wholesale pricing tiers. (Detailed information on these specific tiers is available once you select the store in your account). Generally, the tiers are as follows:
- Front Line: This tier pays you the highest wholesale price (best for new releases)
- Mid Line: This tier offers a slightly lower payout than Front Line (suggested for new releases and recent releases)
- Catalog: This tier is slightly lower than both Front Line and Mid Line (suggested for releases older than 18 months)
- Special: This is the lowest wholesale pricing tier offered (suggested option for promotions, older and/or slow-selling catalogs)
IMPORTANT: Please note that how you price your music is always within your discretion once you select the Amazon Music store and that our guidelines are merely suggestions. But please be aware, an album can only be submitted at one of the above pricing tiers and all songs on that album will be sold at that corresponding level. This means that individual tracks will be pro-rated according to the album price that you selected.
IMPORTANT: Amazon Music sets customer prices independently (the retail price). Even though you may choose which pricing tier you'd like for your album (the wholesale price), the corresponding customer price is set by Amazon MP3 and can change at any time.
IMPORTANT: Amazon Music does not use Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) on music it sells. Music will be sold unprotected as MP3s. If you are concerned about the lack of DRM, please do not choose to sell your music through Amazon MP3.
Important: Amazon Music does not accept soundalike cover songs (more and more stores are starting to take this stance as well). A soundalike cover is a song that sounds very similar to the original. Stores consider this content deceptive and misleading and do not want their customers to purchase this material by mistake. If you distribute soundalike covers to this store the content will get hidden and we will not be able to reverse this or issue any refunds.
Can I Make My Music Free on Amazon Music?
You cannot make a release available for free on Amazon Music.
All releases distributed to stores where downloads are sold must have a purchase price. At this time TuneCore does not partner with any stores that allow you to mark your releases as "free to download."
Pay Rate (How Much Amazon Music Pays You)
When an individual song or album sells on Amazon Music, you get paid per download at a fixed rate. When you choose to have your release delivered to Amazon Music for digital distribution, you are provided charts that reflect the pay rate for each wholesale pricing tier. On occasion, per Amazon’s policies, Amazon Music will enter into promotions, with your consent, to help drive sales and raise the profile of the music in the Amazon store, which could affect your payout. But again, please remember that generally when your songs or albums sell, you will be paid at the rate that you selected.
Payment earned outside of the U.S. is less for various reasons. First, payment on international sales is made in the local currency and therefore subject to exchange rate fluctuations when converted to U.S. dollars. Second, local laws may require that before remitting the money to TuneCore, Amazon Music must deduct sums for applicable local taxes or other tariffs depending on the territory where you distribute your music. Third, the current wholesale price paid to you for international sales of your music may reflect a deduction for publishing royalties, as Amazon Music pays those royalties to local copyright societies and publishers (the “Copyright Deduction”), and then the copyright societies and/or publishers pay out those royalties to the rights holders (even if you are the rights holder and/or control the underlying rights to the composition). The Copyright Deduction may vary per country depending on the local laws and customs at the time of payment and are subject to change.
As always, TuneCore pays you 100% of the proceeds that you earn on your sales through Amazon Music worldwide after these applicable deductions are applied.
When an Amazon Prime customer streams your music, you get paid a proportionate share of Amazon's subscription revenue per month calculated on terms set out in TuneCore's blanket agreement with the store (this usually excludes streams during a subscriber's free trial). Payments will fluctuate each month, depending on the amount of subscription revenue generated and how often your music was streamed.
AMAZON CLOUD DRIVE/PLAYER
Please note: Starting December 31, 2023, Amazon Drive will no longer be supported.
The Amazon Cloud Drive/Player is a subscription service offered by Amazon that allows users to access their music libraries and stream songs from any computer or Android device with Internet access. Amazon uses a scan-and-match technology so that the cloud player will include music purchased from Amazon as well as any other music located on the user’s hard drive.
The amount TuneCore Artists get paid for the Amazon Cloud Drive/Player service is based on a unique revenue share model. Each time your music is accessed via Amazon Cloud Drive/Player, Amazon pays you a pro-rated share of the total subscription revenue generated by the Amazon Cloud Drive/Player service that includes both recording and publishing revenue. Keep in mind that the payout rate will fluctuate each month depending on how much subscription revenue was generated and how often your music was re-downloaded and/or streamed. The payout rate can also vary depending on the “tier” of the Amazon Cloud customer (currently it includes Premium tier, Bundled tier, and Introductory tier).
As always, TuneCore will pay out 100% of the revenue it receives from Amazon for your music; however, Amazon Cloud Drive/Player payments are unique in that they include both recording and publishing income. And if you do not control the underlying musical composition(s) to the recording(s), you are obligated to remit the publishing income to whoever owns or controls the musical composition(s); usually the songwriter or his/her publisher.