Amazon Music is bringing a piece of old-fashioned radio to the streaming era with the rollout of DJ Mode — a new experience that will feature top DJs, artists and music experts providing commentary over curated playlists.
The first artist-led DJ Mode is hosted by teen superstar Billie Eilish. In Amazon Music’s limited-time “The Billie Eilish Takeover,” she shares stories about her music, her influences and why she picked some of her favorite songs to share with listeners. In addition, Amazon Music will update the experience with new stories about her music as new songs from her upcoming album, “Happier Than Ever,” are released.
Amazon Music describes DJ Mode as an “on-demand listening experience that combines the personalization, control and breadth of catalog of streaming with the vibrancy and personality of DJ-hosted radio.”
The company has launched DJ Mode first for three of Amazon Music’s stations — Rap Rotation, Country Heat and All Hits — with additional stations to follow. The DJ Mode stations include song selection and sequencing personalized to listener tastes, and music commentary.
To begin listening with DJ Mode, Prime members and Amazon Music subscribers in the U.S. can opt in by telling Alex to play DJ Mode-enabled stations or by selecting them through the Amazon Music app for iOS, Android, and Fire TV. (Of course, listeners who would rather not hear the additional voiceover chatter can choose to listen the stations without DJ Mode.)
Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, said he’s “delighted that Billie Eilish is behind our first-ever artist-led DJ Mode experience, which gives fans access to her musical tastes and storytelling, hosted by one of the most innovative artists in the world.”
Eilish’s second full-length album, “Happier Than Ever,” is set to be released July 30. The L.A. teen last year made history the youngest artist to receive nominations and win in all the major categories at the 62nd Grammy Awards. At this year’s Grammys, she took home both record of the year for “everything i wanted” and best song written for visual media for James Bond theme song “No Time To Die.”
Eilish also is part of Amazon’s Prime Day Show lineup, alongside H.E.R. and Kid Cudi, with episodes of each artist’s performances debuting June 17 on Prime Video (ahead of the ecommerce giant’s Prime Day 2021 shopping event, set to run June 21-22).
Amazon Music lets Prime members access 2 million songs for no extra charge. Amazon Music Unlimited, which provides access to more than 75 million songs, costs $7.99/month for Prime members and $9.99/month for non-Prime customers. The company is currently running a promo offering Prime members four months of Amazon Music Unlimited free. In addition, with the purchase of select Amazon Echo devices, Prime members new to Amazon Music Unlimited can get six months free.
Watch the intro video for Amazon Music DJ Mode:
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