To the surprise of almost no one, Amazon finally announced that it was raising prices on annual Amazon Prime subscriptions by 25%, going from $79 to $99 a year. Although Amazon is officially saying that it had to increase its Prime prices due to increased shipping costs, Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson isn't buying it. Instead of shipping costs, Dawson thinks that Amazon is jacking up Prime prices in anticipation of its upcoming music streaming service that will put it head-to-head with Pandora, iTunes Radio and Spotify.
Here’s the real reason Amazon is jacking up Prime prices