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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Gemma Jones & Katie Williams

Amazon Prime customers with Alexa could be charged an extra fee

Amazon Prime customers have been issued a warning that has left some subscribers furious with the tech giant.

In a new update, Amazon Prime customers will now have to pay more money to request a specific song from the AI speaker Alexa. If they choose not to, customers will instead be treated to 'similar' songs.

The changes came into force in the beginning of November which has also impacted the way users can listen to songs on Alexa. They also only have six skips every hour, which means that they'll have to sit through songs that they don't like if the Amazon algorithm misjudges their tastes.

READ MORE: DWP Universal Credit Christmas bonus to land in bank accounts within days

When Amazon Music first launched, it was included in the Prime Membership which could be bought for £8.99 a month. However, if customers want the freedom to choose their songs, they will now need to fork out another £8.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited.

As reported by the Liverpool Echo, Amazon Prime customers were quick to criticise the online shopping and streaming giant in response to the news, with many branding the move as greedy.

One user said: "Had Prime for 13 years and a big feature was the @amazonmusic app. The update made it unusable. Increasing prices & hiding features we used to get included behind a paywall is a gross money grab."

Another commented: "@amazonmusic epic failure. You want more money to stop shuffling my songs? I’ll go back to Pandora. You already raised the prices for Amazon Prime. Greed is real!"

"Shuffle sucks. Will not be blackmailed into paying for service to stop it," wrote a third.

Speaking to the Mail, Lisa Barber, Which? Computing Editor said: "Amid the cost-of-living crisis, many users will be evaluating whether they can afford the added expense."

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