Samsung announced yesterday that Amazon Music will come preinstalled on millions of "select" Galaxy phones and tablets globally. New Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers, whether they have the app preinstalled or download it from the Galaxy Store, get a three-month free trial that auto-renews at $12.99 a month, or $11.99 for Prime members, unless canceled before the renewal date, per Digital Music News. What Samsung has not disclosed is which devices will ship with the app preloaded, what it receives commercially from the deal, or whether buyers will be able to fully uninstall it.
Those unanswered questions matter. The announcement lands one week before a scheduled Galaxy Unpacked event, and it extends a preinstall roster that already includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, OneDrive, and Spotify. Critics of Android preloads have argued this practice is designed to capture users at device setup, when attention is highest, and a free trial that requires active cancellation to stop is the mechanism that converts that attention into a billing relationship.
What Amazon Music preinstalled on Samsung phones means for buyers
For new Galaxy buyers: select Samsung phones and tablets will ship with Amazon Music already installed, ready to use out of the box. Samsung has not specified which models qualify. SamMobile speculated that upcoming flagships could be among them given the timing of the announcement, but Samsung has not confirmed that.
For current Galaxy owners: Amazon Music is now available through the Galaxy Store for all Samsung devices, and new Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers who download it from there qualify for the same three-month trial. That offer is available for 12 months from launch in the US and select international markets.
What the trial covers: the three-month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited includes on-demand access to over 100 million songs, HD and Ultra HD audio, a growing catalog of Spatial audio, and one Audible audiobook per month in participating regions. After three months, the subscription auto-renews at $12.99 a month, or $11.99 for Prime members, unless canceled through Amazon Music settings before the renewal date.
The removability question neither company has answered: most preinstalled apps on Galaxy devices can be fully uninstalled after setup. Some, including Facebook, can only be disabled, which means the app is inactive but residual components remain on the device, Engadget reported. Samsung and Amazon have not confirmed which category Amazon Music falls into. That distinction — full removal versus disable-only — is the most consequential practical detail for anyone buying a new Galaxy device, and it remains unaddressed.
Why Samsung and Amazon structured this deal the way they did
The executive language from both companies frames the arrangement as a convenience play. Samsung's head of CTV and Mobile Business Development, Izzet Asayas, said the collaboration is about delivering "special benefits and value" for Galaxy users. Amazon Music's director of business development, Karolina Joynathsing, said preinstalling the app puts "world-class audio entertainment" in customers' hands from "the very first moment," according to Digital Music News. Neither statement addressed the commercial structure of the arrangement.
That structure is not incidental. Third-party preinstall arrangements are generally governed by commercial partnerships, although their financial structures vary and are often undisclosed. Samsung has disclosed no financial terms for the Amazon Music deal.
The distribution channel Samsung chose is also notable. Rather than routing the Galaxy Store offer through Google Play, Samsung runs it through its own storefront. Every Galaxy owner who uses the deal must interact with the Galaxy Store, which is itself preinstalled software. The arrangement gives Samsung a measurable signal of its own store's reach as a distribution platform, separate from Google's ecosystem.
Why the addition hits differently on a $1,300 phone
Preinstalled commercial apps are a standard feature of budget Android hardware, where placement fees help manufacturers keep consumer prices down. The Galaxy S26 series is not budget hardware. The S26 starts at $900, with the S26 and S26 Plus seeing price increases this year; the Ultra, which did not receive a base price increase, starts at $1,300. Unlike budget phones where preloads serve a clear economic function for the buyer, the Galaxy S26 Ultra retains its premium price while carrying the same third-party preload strategy.
The total out-of-box storage footprint is concrete, although the cited figure does not isolate the space used by third-party preloads. A clean setup of a 512GB Galaxy S26 Ultra, with system files and preinstalled apps updated, consumes more than 40GB of storage before the owner installs a single app of their own, close to 8% of total capacity on that variant. Amazon Music and its associated data would add to that figure. The tested Galaxy S26 Ultra setup did not present an opt-in screen for the third-party apps identified by Android Authority.
Reader sentiment on the practice is fairly settled. In an Android Authority poll of 947 respondents conducted earlier this year, 58% called third-party preloads on premium phones flatly unacceptable; 37% said they tolerate them as long as removal is easy; 5% said they welcome them. Amazon Music's addition does not change that dynamic. It extends it and confirms the preinstall roster is growing.
The practical implication for premium buyers runs beyond the philosophical objection: flagship Galaxy hardware now ships with a layer of commercial software that requires active management. That means uninstalling apps you didn't request, monitoring storage you didn't allocate, and, in this case, remembering to cancel a trial you chose to activate before it renews.
What to check when you unbox your next Galaxy
The trial requires cancellation only after an eligible user activates it. Three months of Amazon Music Unlimited is a substantive content package. The risk is a $12.99 monthly charge that begins automatically if you miss the cancellation window. Set a calendar reminder before the renewal date shown in your Amazon account.
Check removability before assuming you can clean it up. Most Galaxy preloads uninstall cleanly, but some do not. Until Samsung or Amazon confirms how the preinstalled version of Amazon Music behaves, check your app settings for "uninstall" versus "disable." The difference determines whether the app leaves your phone entirely or simply goes quiet, as Engadget noted.
Current Galaxy owners can access the trial without a new device. The three-month offer is available through the Galaxy Store for 12 months from launch, with no hardware upgrade required, Samsung confirmed.
The key open questions, which specific models ship with the preload, what Samsung receives commercially, and whether Amazon Music is fully removable remain unresolved ahead of Galaxy Unpacked next week. That event is now worth watching on two levels: the hardware Samsung announces, and the software it decides to ship already running on it.
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