Next month, millions of Netflix subscribers will see an increase in their monthly subscription fee from $9 per month to $10. While this alone might not be enough to cost the service many subscribers, when combined with Netflix’s shrinking catalog, it could cause some dissatisfied customers to jump ship, and Amazon will be right there to catch them.
As of yesterday evening, users looking to watch streaming video via Amazon Prime Video no longer needed a $100 per year membership in order to do so. The company now offers a standalone subscription to Prime Video, available for $9 per month.
If customers do want the other benefits of a Prime membership, but don’t want to commit to a full year, Amazon also now offers month-to-month pricing for Prime. That plan costs $11 per month, and includes everything in the standard yearly plan, including Prime Video streaming. Of course, the yearly plan still ends up costing the least, but this is a nice way for potential customers to give the service a try.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the option to pay monthly for Prime. Last month Amazon began offering monthly Prime pricing through Sprint for the same $11 per month price tag, and it has experimented with monthly pricing as far back as 2012, though the company has said that its customers generally prefer to pay yearly.
Even the standalone Prime Video subscription isn’t new, at least outside of the U.S. Amazon has been offering Prime Video subscriptions in the U.K., Germany, and Japan for some time, but it seems that the company is finally ready to begin positioning Prime Video as a premium service in its own right, as opposed to yet another benefit of Prime.
While Netflix may be the most deeply entrenched streaming service, Amazon original content like The Man in the High Castle, Mozart in the Jungle, and Transparent, combined with content not available on Netflix — such as Downton Abbey and Mr. Robot — has Amazon poised to grab some of its market share, and this new pricing certainly won’t hurt either.
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
Technology evolves every day, transforming how we live and work. Our devices are becoming more than tools we use. They are increasingly capable companions that help streamline day-to-day routines and spark creative ideas. If you have been waiting for the right moment to upgrade your tech setup, the Discover Samsung Shopping Event offers an opportunity to explore what connected, AI-powered living can look like.