Eight years after launching in India as a bundled Prime benefit, Amazon Music is moving beyond its Prime-only roots with a three-tier strategy as the company bets aggressively on India becoming a 100 million paid audio subscriber market within a decade, signalling a major shift in its streaming playbook.In one of its biggest product pivots since launching in India in 2018, Amazon Music will roll out a free ad-supported service, introduce limited ads within Prime Music, and launch premium subscription Amazon Music Unlimited (AMU) at Rs 99 per month for Prime members and Rs 119 for non-Prime users.Also read: Spotify aiming for a 'ChatGPT moment' in music and India is central to the planThe move marks Amazon Music’s push beyond the Prime ecosystem at a time when India’s audio streaming market is undergoing a sharp shakeout after years of intense competition and weak monetisation.In the past two years alone, ByteDance-owned Resso, Airtel-backed Wynk Music and Hungama Music have shut down, while other platforms have pivoted to a subscription-led model, underscoring the challenge of building sustainable streaming businesses in India despite rising consumption.“We don’t want music to be restricted to Prime. We want almost every Indian to have access to music,” Rishabh Gupta, Country Head, Amazon Music India, told ET, describing India’s streaming market as being at the cusp of a “hockey-stick growth” phase.Launched in India as part of Amazon’s Prime bundle in February 2018, Amazon Music has largely existed within the Prime membership ecosystem, competing with players such as Spotify, YouTube Music, JioSaavn and Gaana. But the company now believes changing consumer behaviour, rising smartphone penetration, cheap mobile data and the ubiquity of UPI-based payments are creating conditions for a meaningful paid audio market.“India could become a 100 million paid subscriber market in about 10 years,” Gupta said, offering one of the most bullish projections yet for India’s audio streaming business.The revamped structure will include Amazon Music Free, an ad-supported tier offering access to over 100 million songs and 15 million podcasts, albeit with restricted on-demand listening. Prime Music, bundled with Prime, will continue offering on-demand playback but with limited advertising and no offline downloads.At the top end, Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon’s premium global offering, will include ad-free listening, HD and Ultra HD quality, Dolby Atmos-enabled spatial audio, offline downloads and multi-device streaming. Prime members will also get a six-month free trial at launch, while non-Prime users will get three months free.Gupta argued the next phase of growth will be driven by changing listening habits.“Discovery may happen on Instagram, YouTube or through friends, but when users want to repeatedly listen to a song, they come back to audio streaming platforms,” he said, arguing that sustained engagement is increasingly shifting to dedicated music services.Even as non-film music gains ground, Gupta said film and soundtrack music continues to dominate consumption, with nearly 80% customer penetration on Amazon Music. At the same time, regional genres are seeing sharp growth, with languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri gaining traction alongside Hindi, English and Punjabi music.The company is also seeing different consumption patterns emerge across formats and demographics. On Alexa and voice-enabled devices, artists such as Arijit Singh, Karan Aujla, Taylor Swift and BTS dominate listening, while users on Amazon Music’s visual app tend to gravitate more towards Pritam and A.R. Rahman, reflecting varied audience cohorts.International music, too, is benefiting from India’s booming concert economy. Gupta said Amazon Music often sees a surge in streams whenever global acts tour the country, citing partnerships around Enrique Iglesias’ India tour and campaigns linked to Ed Sheeran.Amazon is also widening its ambitions beyond music. Podcast engagement on the platform has risen nearly 3x in recent years, prompting the company to deepen investments in exclusive partnerships, including cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin’s Ash Ki Baat podcast.The company is simultaneously betting on live streaming and video-led fan engagement to deepen stickiness. Amazon Music currently streams global festivals such as Stagecoach Festival in the US, Primavera Sound in Spain and Fuji Rock Festival in Japan within its app, allowing Indian users to watch performances live.Also read: Delhi HC refers Zee-JioStar music copyright dispute to mediation, bars platform from using Zee's licensed worksGupta also struck a measured tone on artificial intelligence, saying the technology is increasingly becoming an enabler across the music ecosystem, from faster product development to helping creators experiment with new workflows.For Amazon, India is increasingly important not just as a domestic market but also as a gateway to serving the global Indian diaspora, particularly in markets such as the US and UK, where demand for Indian music continues to rise.