Tech

Amazon talks to music labels about a streaming service

Peter Kafka
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
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Amazon gives away movies and TV shows to people who join its Amazon Prime subscription service. When will it start giving away music, too?

Maybe this year. People have been predicting that Amazon would offer a Spotify-like music subscription service, most likely bundled with its Prime delivery option, for some time. But industry sources say Amazon is now engaged in more serious talks with big music labels about making that happen.

Which doesn't mean it will: One label source reports that Amazon isn't close to getting a deal done, because its executives are asking for a substantial discount on the pricing the labels have given to other services, like Spotify, Rhapsody and Beats.

Still, label talks have been going on for the past few months, sources say.

Re/code has the whole story.

By Peter Kafka, Re/code.net.

CNBC's parent NBC Universal is an investor in Re/code's parent Revere Digital, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.