Last week, Amazon released it’s own version of a streaming music service called Prime Music. Customers of the $99/year Amazon Prime subscription can now have access to millions of tracks and hundreds of curated playlists for no additional charge. There are also personalized recommendations based on your listening habits, similar to the preexisting Amazon “recommends” shopping feature.
All of Amazon’s previous music services, like Cloud Player and Amazon MP3 apps, along with Prime Music, will now all be under the umbrella of “Amazon Music”.
Prime Music is ad-free and has no skip limits, unlike Pandora. There is also an offline mode that allows users to download playlists and albums for listening while not connected to the Internet. The “high quality” setting streams 256kbps, which is less than Spotify’s 320kbps, but it’s unlikely users will notice a difference.
Spotify and Rdio have the leg-up on Prime Music with the sheer size of their music libraries (over 20 million songs). Amazon has yet to make a deal with Universal Music Group, which means there’s no availability for some major artists like Jay-Z or Taylor Swift as well as countless iconic albums. Also, with current licensing deals, Prime Music will lack the newest hits. Currently, 9 out of the 10 Billboard’s top Hot songs are unavailable.
While a bit half-baked, Prime Music will likely not disappoint users if for nothing other than the fact that it costs nothing extra. (Though, the cost of Prime did jump $20/year a few months ago…) Perhaps Amazon is looking for ways to add value to its new streaming device Amazon FireTV.
With Apple recently acquiring Beats Music and Youtube working on a new streaming service, it appears Amazon has joined the race for streaming dominance. With the addition of another streaming service, it’d be safe to assume that music sales could drop even lower than last quarter’s drop of 13%.
Even if it doesn’t become everyone’s go-to streaming source, the launching of Prime Music is representative of the changing stage for music today, trending towards streaming or “renting” and away from sales. For mixing and mastering, it means studios and producers will have to become even more considerate of the low fidelity MP3 formats when finalizing their music.
Make Pro Songs
There are 8 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You’ll get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
2. 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio 1:1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us to answer all your questions and receive unlimited advanced mixing feedback directly from us.
- Unlimited direct access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve your mixes and masters.
- Unlimited advanced mixing feedback with detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Fast communication to answer all your questions and get tailored guidance that’s specific to your needs.
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can improve your mixes quickly.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide feedback about what you can improve before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
4. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
5. Mixing and Mastering Competitions
- Compete in Mixing Competitions and Mastering Competitions to win prizes and connect with friends and colleagues.
- This is a great collaborative way to improve your skills alongside both aspiring engineers and seasoned industry professionals.
6. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
7. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 58 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
8. 700+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
