Amazon.com is poised to unleash a stand-alone music-streaming service in time for Xmas. With a price tag reported to be about US$5 a month, the new service will be cheaper than competing streaming offerings from Spotify and Apple Music.

Amazon will probably run it at a loss, with the e-commerce giant planning to use streaming music to beef up sales of Echo, a gadget that lets people use voice commands to get information, organise schedules and make purchases online.

The company is willing to lose money on a cheap offering in order to attract more shoppers to the Echo, with the ultimate goal of embedding all of its services more deeply in users’ everyday lives.