After months of speculation, Amazon has launched its own ad-free, on-demand music streaming service. Amazon Music Unlimited is designed to compete directly with Spotify, Apple Music, and all of the other music streaming services already available.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers access to "tens of millions" of songs from the major record labels and thousands of indies. It also offers access to playlists and personalized radio stations. And the ability to download songs for offline listening. So far, so familiar.

Even the standard pricing is, well, standard, with regular schmoes (non-Prime members) paying $9.99-per-month. However, Amazon Prime members only have to pay $7.99-per-month, and there's an Echo plan costing just $3.99-per-month for owners of Amazon's smart speaker. A family plan costing $14.99-per-month for up to six people will debut later this year.

The Echo-only plan is an intriguing premise. For $3.99-per-month, which is the lowest asking price for a music streaming service we're aware of, you get to play unlimited music on your Amazon Echo (or Dot or Tap). Which makes sense if that's how you always listen to music at home.

Is Amazon Music Unlimited Too Little Too Late?

Amazon Music Unlimited is being offered in addition to Amazon Prime Music. The former is a full-fledged Spotify competitor, with the latter offering a fraction of the features for free. Amazon Prime subscribers happy with the limitations of Prime Music can simply ignore the lure of Music Unlimited.

Amazon is hoping Music Unlimited will compete with the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music. On the one hand, it's a latecomer to the game, and is therefore playing catch-up. But on the other hand, it has a strong ecosystem and a ready-made set of potential subscribers.

Music Unlimited is available now, with a 30-day free trial for commitment-phobes. A refreshed Amazon Music app with a brand new user interface is available for PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Sonos, Bose, Fire devices, the web, and more.

What do you think of Amazon Music Unlimited? Are you likely to sign up for the free trial? Or are you happy with your current music streaming service? Are you at all tempted by the cheaper Echo-only plan? Please let us know in the comments below!