you’ve got the option to now hit play and enjoy randomness without paying any extra.

And it’s not all bad.

You won’t just get a totally random song from that 100 million-strong catalog.

A green old-timey radio sitting on the green back seat of an older model car.

Milivoj Kuhar / Unsplash

Shuffle

Its aninteresting idea from Amazon VP Steve Boom.

Make the music freeall of itand sell the UI for listening to it.

But there’s another part to this: What about the musicians?

A smart speaker in a kitchen with someone chopping vegetables in the background.

visualspace / Getty Images

Won’t You kindly Think of the Musicians?

We know thatmusicians get a raw dealfrom music streaming services.

Even the ‘good’ ones like Apple and Tidal stillonly pay a centevery time a song is played.

Closeup on a DJ using sound equipment in a dark environment.

Marcela Laskoski / Unsplash

Amazon’s new unlimited shuffle product won’t change that, but neither will it make things much worse.

It all depends on how shuffley the shuffle is.

You don’t really know what you’re getting.

Marcela Laskoski / Unsplash

And why stop here?

There must be plenty of ways to present music when your streaming catalog includes pretty much every song around.