Amazon HD Music goes live

Only shuffle though, so almost useless.

 

I really wished the interviewer had asked why Amazon decided to hobble their device when it comes to playing music in Atmos.

 

ThecWiim mini streamer is the first to have Alexacast. You can cast to WIIM with the amazon app up to 192/24.

 

Amazon to let Prime members listen to 100 million songs ad-free — MarketWatch

 

But it's not nothing either... as they didn't have to do anything

 

Just tried it through my Firestick via the Oppo 105 modwright mod. Very mediocre sound. Some free youtube music videos sound better.

 

Good thing there is competition in this arena then.

 

If I recall correctly, the default setting is not the highest quality audio. If you hadn't previously configured your Firestick and Amazon's app to play music using the highest quality available, check that out. However, I will say that I was so frustrated with Amazon Music during my free trial period earlier this year that I bought an Apple device for the first time in my life. Beyond Atmos not playing through an AVR, I also couldn't get my Firestick to stay at the highest quality audio setting. I'd hearing a track or two in HD and then the next track would come on with an indication that I was listening to lossy audio. If I hit the back button to start the same track again, it would play in HD. I reached out to Amazon customer service via their forums and they were as useless to assist with this issue as they were with Atmos.

I agree that it's nice that Amazon is now including more tracks "for free" to people just paying for Prime, but as a music streaming service I would not rate Amazon very highly.

Edit: I just read another article about Amazon's recent move and this part jumped out at me: "So what other differences remain between Amazon Music Prime and the $8.99 (Prime-subsidized) Unlimited plan? Prime-only listeners can't listen offline — again, with the exception of All-Access playlists — and can't stream Amazon's high-fidelity audio." So I guess it doesn't matter what your settings are. If you are listening to music that's included with Prime, it won't be HD.

 

That's what I'm doing. Very good sound with the high res files.

 

I won’t be listening to music with Prime. Life is too short. There is plenty of bandwidth these days, so why the ultra low res garbage. I mean, Prime video goes to 4K which takes more bandwidth than high res audio. At least give us cd quality audio.

 

There is a huge catalogue of hi-res material for $8 a month or whatever the price is now. This is just the free tier they are talking about.

 

This change to Prime Music essentially puts them at the same level as Spotify's free tier, but without the commercials. Is Prime still streaming at 256 mp3? If they still have some gray market recordings in the service, , as I once read was the case, it may be worth checking out solely for those.

 

If you have Prime already and can stand shuffle only and ok sound quality it will be sufficient to many.

 

Are you saying that if you are a Prime HD subscriber that they will now be streaming compressed music to us instead of the uncompressed music that we have been paying for? If so, then where did you see this claim?

 

I've been listening to Qobuz in lieu of Amazon HD as of late. There's more true high bitrate music (24 bit, ~96) than Amazon. Sometimes Amazon will claim "UHD" for an album, but then you scroll down the track list and only 1-2 tracks are actually UHD. Amazon appears to have the larger overall catalog though. For quality, with my RME ASIO Win10 driver, Qobuz will properly display the bitrate/depth of the individual tracks, and won't use what I have set the bitrate/depth to in Windows 10. Thus Qobuz seems to be bit - perfect, whereas even in Amazon "exclusive mode" the bitrate for each track would be what Windows is set to. I got tired of potentially leaving quality on the table, and I like the idea of bit perfect playback. All that said, when I directly compare sound quality between Amazon and Qobuz for tracks (presumable same master), it is REALLY close, with just a touch more "air" in Qobuz. I'm keeping both services for now, but will likely cancel Amazon music next year.

 

That's not how I interpreted it. If you pay extra for the streaming service, it will remain the same (HD, can select specific tracks, etc). If you simply are accessing the expanded library as a Prime member, you will only be served content compressed using a lossy codec.

 

Yeah, I know. I don't want anymore $$$ subscriptions. I think any tier should be at least cd quality. Eff music streaming services.

 

Yeah the shuffle only deal pretty much sucks, too.

 

ummm, this is being offered for free. Nobody is required to use it.

 

It's NOT FREE!!! I pay for Amazon Prime.

 

The new free tier announced yesterday includes all the tracks that we pay $8.99 a month for and now includes many podcasts. The caveat is that you can select an artist and only shuffle their songs or shuffle Amazon created playlists. You cannot play what you want when you want. So I will continue to pay for Amazon Music as I use it mainly for in the car and at work. The app works very well.

 

It's not free. One has to have the PAY subscription of Prime to get this service. Not to mention Prime has gone up in price more than once. Why is this so hard to understand.

 

Yes, that is true. Without an Amazon subscription you can get Amazon Music at a higher price.

 

I subscribe to both Qobuz and Amazon for a combined $20 a month, to me both sound good which sounds better is really mastering dependent. $20 a month is way less than I was spending a month on CDs back in the day and I have access to more music than I can comprehend.

 

Yep!...i resisted the streaming thing for years,spending money on records and cd's that where hit n'miss.Now for the price of a single cd or record we now have access to almost unlimited music.....sounds pretty damn good too