*Free with purchase: There's a membership fee and inflated prices for Prime. I'm glad for the competition since multiple retailers drastically improved their offerings.
You can get standalone Amazon Prime Video membership — buuut it's about the same price as complete Amazon Prime membership! So you might as well get the complete membership and get all the perks you might want in the future.
And bam, you're now in the Amazon Prime universe. One day you'll be comparison shopping for a specific pair of shoes you like online, and you'll see that Amazon has the lowest (or one of the lowest) prices plus free one- or two-day shipping, and hey, you've got that Prime membership from back when you wanted to watch Amazon Prime Video. Deal sealed.
It lowers the barriers for every Amazon Prime-connected entry point.
It’s even worse with Prime as it’s getting harder and harder to find what is free and what isn’t as Amazon decided that it’s a good idea to intermingle pay per view/rental, buy to own and subscription based content.
Yes, it does. The added discounts, added features (free video streaming, free MP3s from time to time, free 2-day shipping, occasional free ebooks), and convenience more than make up for the membership cost.
It's irrational not to use Amazon when you're a Prime member.
I'm not surprised that Amazon is pushing Prime heavily- once you've got people paying a regular subscription (especially one as low as $80 a year) they'll rarely stop paying it.
I'm close to signing up. I tried the month free trial and enjoyed the shipping, but barely used the on demand video because there wasn't that much recent stuff on there that I could actually rent for free. I imagine that Amazon is quite committed to changing that.
I had been on the fence about renewing my decade+ long Prime membership in a couple weeks. The only thing that was seriously tempting me to keep it was Prime Video.
I have mixed feelings already about Prime Video, as a watching experience I find it quite annoying because I'll find a movie I'd like to watch only to find I have to pay another $5 to watch it. With the other services, I know if a movie comes up on the display, I can watch it without further cost.
I'm fairly sensitive to adverts, I really don't like seeing them, largely because I've isolated myself from them. The fewer you see, the more unsettling they are, the blatant attractive factor of them, do.not.want. And anther $40/yr is too much.
Apparently, dropping Prime with the shopping really does not impact the speed of delivery or cost. I'm already often selecting delayed delivery. With the increased prices, it's hard to justify the $140/yr.
I actually pay more, so I can stream on more devices at once in 4k. It has entertainment value. I have no problem $15 a month for something that helps me relax after work or calms my child when she's upset that her mother and I are doing housework and I wouldn't have a problem paying that once a year as a lump sum. The Prime Video catalog provides none of those benefits as there's just not that much good content. Even the children's programming is mostly knock-off versions of popular shows/characters. The price isn't the problem, it's the value proposition.
The true value of Amazon Prime is shipping and as others have mentioned, the near instant-gratification aspect of same/next day delivery has been bad for our spending habits. Waiting a day or two extra isn't a bad thing and plenty of vendors offer expedited and/or free shipping without a yearly membership.
Free streaming of certain movies/TV shows on Amazon with a Prime membership is arguably a better value. Selection seems to be mostly the same as Netflix, though device penetration is far more shallow. Still works on my Roku, though.
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