Companies can’t help themselves and do things that might have sounded nice in the boardroom but are met with groans from actual consumers. We suspect this will be one of those things – Samsung US just announced that select Galaxy phones and tablets will come with the Amazon Music app pre-installed.
To be fair, the bloatware comes with a perk – you get a free 3-month subscription. This gives you access to all the songs and podcasts on the service as well as one free audiobook from Audible per month.
The Amazon Music Unlimited subscription is $13 a month and you can only get a 1-month trial normally. This also gives you access to Audible, which is $9 a month on its own (after a 1-month trial).
Amazon Music Unlimited has over 100 million songs, with a growing number of them available in Ultra HD and Spatial Audio. Artists do livestreams and there is artist merch available. There are millions of podcasts too.
So, this is pretty good value – and you can get it even if you don’t buy a new Galaxy device. If you download the app from the Galaxy Store, you should get the free 3-month trial. Make sure to go through the Galaxy Store and not the Google Play Store, though.
This is actually part of the announcement – Amazon Music is now available on the Galaxy Store (it wasn’t previously and we’re still not seeing it on our device). We’re just not sure why it’s such a big deal given that it has been available on the Play Store for years.
Good value or not, we wish that Samsung would have left it to the user – download Amazon Music and get the free trial. Who doesn’t like free stuff? But having the app pre-installed whether you want it or not is annoying.
By the way, only Samsung US posted about this, but then the press release talks about pre-installing the app on “millions of select Samsung mobile and tablet devices globally,” so we’re not sure whether this is happening in the US only or globally.
Here is what the execs that brainstormed this promo have to say about it:
“We are constantly finding new ways to deliver special benefits and value for our Galaxy users. Through our collaboration with Amazon Music, Samsung continues to elevate premium experiences across the Galaxy experience,” said Izzet Asayas, Head of CTV & Mobile Business Development.
“By pre-installing Amazon Music on select Galaxy devices and making it available in the Galaxy Store, we’re putting world-class audio entertainment in customers’ hands from the very first moment — with a free Amazon Music Unlimited trial to make that first experience truly exceptional,” says Karolina Joynathsing, Director of Business Development, Amazon Music.
