If you subscribe to Prime Membership to get access to quick shipping for your Kindle, the fees are going to be increasing. The price of an annual Prime membership in the United States will be increasing from $119 to $139, while the price for customers who pay on a monthly basis is rising to $14.99 a month from $12.99. Existing Prime members will see the price change on membership renewals after March 25th, 2022. If you have never subscribed to Prime before, you better do it fast, the new rates take effect on February 18th. The Prime Student membership price is also reportedly increasing from $59 to $69 annually.
The company said the 17% increase is a result of “continued expansion of Prime member benefits as well as the rise in wages and transportation costs.” This is the fist time that Amazon has increased the price in Prime Membership in over four years. They currently have 200 million paid subscribers.
On a company earnings call Thursday, CFO Brian Olsavsky cited “The continued expansion of Prime member benefits, and the increased use we have seen, along with increased costs and inflation,” as factors for the pricing jump. Still, Olsavsky says he believes an Amazon Prime membership offers the best value for consumers, with free two-day shipping, the expansion of free same-day delivery, and a host of streaming options, from Amazon Music and Audible, to Amazon Prime Video.
There is a host of lesser known aspects of Prime, such supporting your favorite Twitch streamer, free game content, free photo storage and even discounts on groceries at Whole Foods. Don’t forget, there is also access to all of the deals that occur on Amazon Prime Day, which took place over two days last year, and boasted more than two million deals online available exclusively for Amazon Prime members.
The price increase is only occurring in the United States. It has not been announced if residents of Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom will pay extra costs sometime in the future. People are going to be pretty irate about the price jump, but it is worth it, if you do lots of shopping on Amazon and take advantage of other programs like Amazon Music, Prime Video or even get access to Prime deals for audiobooks and ebooks.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
