MUMBAI: The music streaming business has recently been in the news. After Apple and Google in talks to buy music streaming websites, Amazon has launched 'Prime Music' service which went live on Thursday.

The company is offering a 30-day free trial and the service is a part of Amazon Prime through which the customers can pay a price of $99 for a year worth of subscription. This means that these customers will be able to access the catalogue of music along with the previous benefits of streaming films, lending e-book service etc.

Reports claim that the current service “will not include recent releases but instead restrict its catalogue to songs and albums that are six months old and older".

In addition, Amazon has apparently signed licensing deals with major labels like Sony Music and Warner Music Group. Some reports have noted that Prime Music will not include anything from the Universal Music Group which is the largest music label in the world.

The service will also offer features like recommending music and creates playlists according to the user's interests. The company's vice president for digital music, Steve Boom, says, “Ultimately we're creating lifelong relationships with our customers and it makes them better customers of Amazon (who) use our services more frequently."

Amazon is the latest internet giant to venture into the music streaming business. Although Amazon claims to have over a million songs in its directory, Prime Music's catalogue is comparatively smaller than other music streaming apps like Spotify and Pandora.