Ariana Grande will be performing as part of Amazon's Prime Day events on Wednesday.
- Amazon is running a series of events around the world to showcase its Prime services in advance of its annual Prime Day.
- These events include performances by Ariana Grande and deadmau5 that will market its music-streaming and gaming services.
- The events showcase how much Amazon Prime's offerings have expanded in recent years.
Prime Day has become one of the most important sales days of the year for Amazon - and this year, it wants to milk every last bit of it.
A $119-a-year Prime membership includes more than just free shipping these days. To make customers aware of that fact, Amazon is running extra Prime Day promotions across its other Prime services, such as Prime Video, Prime Music, and Amazon Fresh.
It's also offering discounts to Prime members who shop at Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired for more than $13 billion last year.
On top of this, Amazon announced it would be running a series of events around the world to showcase its extra services.
The events include a performance by Ariana Grande in New York, which is hosted by Prime Music, and a performance in Los Angeles by deadmau5, which is hosted by its gaming-streaming service, Twitch Prime.
Grande will be joined by Kelsea Ballerini, Alessia Cara, and Julia Michaels at the Amazon Music Unboxing Event, will be streamed on Amazon and Twitch on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST.
Other events are taking place in London, Tokyo, and Milan over the weekend, in advance of Prime Day on Monday, July 16.
The intention here is likely to show the breadth of what Prime includes and to educate new customers about its benefits, hopefully encouraging them to fork out $119 for the annual membership.
Prime started out as a membership service offering two-day shipping of products Amazon sold. It has since grown to offer several other services, including unlimited music and video streaming, free two-hour shipping in certain locations, and a try-before-you-buy clothing service, Prime Wardrobe.
In April, Jeff Bezos confirmed that there are now more than 100 million Prime members worldwide. According to Bezos, more Prime members signed up in 2017 than any year prior. The service is being rolled out to more locations, most recently to Mexico, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.