Amazon takes on Angie's List with handymen for hire
Culture
Amazon is now in the business of selling you a plumber, painter, or pilates instructor.
I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update.
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CNET Update.
Monday, March 30, 2015.
If you bought a bookcase on Amazon, you can also shop on Amazon for someone to put it together for you.
The retail giant launched Amazon Home Services.
It lists more than 2 million professionals to help with handyman projects for your home, your car and your garden.
There are also more personal services offered such as music lessons or a private yoga instruction.
The prices vary by job.
For example $100 gets you two hours of house cleaning.
Amazon curates reviews and does background checks on all companies listed which directly competes with Yelp and Angie's List.
You'll likely see these services pop up as suggestions when you're buying related items on Amazon.
If you purchase a TV, Amazon will suggest a professional nearby to help you hang it on the wall.
It's launching across the US now, and if the job isn't done right, Amazon will work with customers to address the problem.
In other news, Spotify has a new rival with some serious music star power.
Tidal is a streaming audio service that launched last year and was recently purchased by rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z.
Tidal costs twice as much as Spotify.
It's $20 a month because it stream high definition sound.
It's similar to CD quality.
It also will feature HD videos and can be played on Android and iOS devices.
As well as sono speakers.
Reports say some big artists will be streaming their songs first on title before other services like Spotify.
Jay Z has pulled in some major artists to support titles, including Madonna, Kanye West, Nicki Menaj, Coldplay, Usher, and of course Jay Z's wife, Beyonce.
That celebrity backing will be a formidable challenger to whatever new music streaming service Apple is cooking up.
Meanwhile, Spotify is now playable for free through Playstation Music.
The new Playstation Streaming went live on Monday with the entire Spotify music catalog.
It's the first time you do not have to pay for Spotify to listen through a television, but of course you'll hear ads between songs.
You also don't have to have a Playstation Plus subscription.
Playstation Music is unique in that you can listen to music while playing video games.
You can also control music remotely from a smartphone.
And in other news, Android owners can once again create and save custom routes in the Google Maps app.
Google's My Maps tool lets you create and save a map with your own.
Own pinpoints and route which is handy for planning a vacation.
Recently Google made you download a separate My Maps app but that's no longer the case.
Within the main Google Maps app just go to your places and you'll see your custom maps.
That's your tech news update and there's always more cnet.com.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
