Free Amazon Prime perk that could save you £131 a year
As Amazon Prime Video introduces adverts to the streaming platform, many might be pondering if it's still worth their hard-earned cash.
But the service has a number of hidden perks that mean a membership can be more than just watching videos.
The streaming giant is the latest to bring in ads, following in the footsteps of Netflix and Disney+.
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We're talking another £2.99 a month if you want to stay ad-free. Whether it feels worth it or not will depend on your own circumstances.
If you accept the ads, expect them before shows and films, as well as during them.
Away from the noise surrounding the adverts, which includes many canceling their subscriptions, Amazon is keen to remind subscribers that there's a number of benefits to its Prime membership.
One of them is free video games every single month.
Another is the thousands of free shows and movies available through the Prime smart TV app.
But there is another which, if it fits the bill for you, could save you more than £130 a year.
We're talking about Amazon Music Prime.
The service is included with a Prime membership and gives you 'all the music and top podcasts, ad-free'.
There are more than 100 million songs - including the likes of Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Bruce Springsteen and The Weeknd - that you can listen to for free, on the go, wherever you want.
It's not perfect though; you can't always pick which song you want to listen to with shuffle play taking over. There's also a limit on how many songs you can skip.
To unlock this, you have to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited for £9.99.
Amazon says: "Amazon Music provides Prime members with access to 100 million songs ad-free, the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts, and thousands of playlists and stations, included with Prime at no additional cost.
"Prime members can shuffle play any artist, album, or playlist from our expanded music catalog and discover new music based on your likes.
"Prime members can pick and play songs from a curated selection of All-Access Playlists, on-demand with no skip limits, or download them to listen offline. Offline listening is now only available for All-Access Playlists.
"The improved Prime member benefits for Amazon Music are available on the Amazon Music web player, mobile and desktop app, and Echo devices.
"All-Access Playlists requested on Echo devices play in shuffle mode. On Fire TV, you can only listen to music. On Fire Tablet, you do not have a full music catalog or ad-free podcasts availability."
This could save you more than £130 a year if you find yourself signed up to both Prime and have a Spotify premium membership.
At £10.99 a month, the cheapest Spotify member costs £131.88 a year for a lower end premium membership.
You can of course stream music for free on Spotify but this comes with adverts. Like Amazon Music Prime, it also comes with a limit on skipping songs.
Spotify's free membership also means you can't download to listen offline.
So it's not for everyone and it's not as perfect as paying for an all-in premium subscription. Plus, people like what they know. But the option is there to save a few quid a month if it suits.
Topics: Amazon, Amazon Prime Day, Spotify, Music, Money, UK News
Tom Earnshaw