US online retail giant Amazon.com has launched a new music streaming feature on the Internet Thursday. The new feature gives paid subscribers of Amazon's Prime service free access to thousands of songs without any advertising.

It does not, however, include the majority of new releases nor the catalog of the Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, Amazon said. The new service is less robust than Spotify and Beats, which each offer more than 20 million songs.

Amazon wooed small labels by offering them shares of a $5 million (3.69 million euros) royalty pool in exchange for a one-year licensing agreement. Larger labels and distributors were offered a heftier one-time payment for a year's worth of access to certain titles.

Amazon's Prime service, which counts more than 20 million subscribers, recently upped its annual fee from $79 to $99.

rs/uhe (Reuters/AFP)