Amazon began sending e-mails to subscribers of its Prime shipping and streaming service this morning announcing that the cost of the service would be going from $79 to $99 a year. The new rate will apply to current Prime subscribers if their renewals come up on or after April 17, 2014. Subscribers whose contracts renew before that date will still get the $79-per-year price, and as of this writing, adding a brand-new one-year Prime subscription to your cart still costs only $79. This is the first time Amazon has ever raised the price of the service.

Amazon first announced that it was considering a price hike back in January when it reported its fourth-quarter earnings, which missed analyst expectations. Amazon isn't known for its huge profits, but CFO Tom Szkutak said that the cost of offering free two-day shipping to Prime customers had become unfeasible for the company. Amazon was considering raising the price by as much as $40, but it eventually settled on a less-steep $20.

Depending on how you use Prime, it may still be a good deal relative to other streaming subscriptions. A standard Netflix or Hulu Plus streaming subscription costs $7.99 a month, or $95.88 a year; a Spotify Premium or Rdio subscription costs $9.99 a month, or $119.88 per year. If you make extensive use of Amazon's free two-day shipping, its book lending library for Kindle owners, and its collection of streaming videos, the price is still competitive. If you only want to use one of those services, though, the price increase may be harder to swallow.