Post by Owen Y on May 2, 2019 8:17:38 GMT 12
According to a report from Music Business Worldwide (25/04/19). "... the price of Amazon’s new tier will likely be in the region of $15 per month. It’s expected to launch before the end of 2019. It’s a better bit rate, better than CD quality. ” “ Amazon will have every tier of recorded music covered, from free streaming through to limited catalog via Prime, a full ‘Spotify rival’ in Music Unlimited and a hi-definition service – in addition to vinyl, CD, merch and more. We haven’t seen anything near what they’re capable of in music yet.” AMAZON has recently launched its free music streaming service (locked to Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo speaker). And GOOGLE has launched essentially the same thing: "a price-tag-exempt, voice-activated music streaming service operated via the tech giant’s Home devices." (Rolling Stone 22/04/19)
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Pundit
Post by belbo on May 2, 2019 20:04:24 GMT 12
All is good but it's scary one company being a major player in so many things.
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Post by Owen Y on Sept 18, 2019 12:35:42 GMT 12
AMAZON Music HD launches - today. " The cost is $12.99 for Prime members and $14.99 for everyone else... So far it looks like CD quality music and "higher" up through 24/192. No mention of MQA in the first press releases. " (Audiophile Style) See also Part Time Audiophile. " With an existing subscriber base of around 30 million users, Amazon Music is one third the size of Spotify but dwarfs the three other streaming services offering lossless tiers: Deezer (7 million subscribers); Tidal (3 million subscribers); Qobuz (0.2 million subscribers). Converting even a small percentage of their existing users over to the HD tier will see Amazon Music move a good number of people away from lossy streaming and back to the uncompressed audio that marked the CD era. Only the grumpiest of audiophiles would refuse to call that a good thing. " ( DARKO Audio)  
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Post by Citroen on Sept 20, 2019 17:28:19 GMT 12
My Tidal sub is about to finish, so I might give this a go.
Only thing is I'm not sure if my Bluesound supports this yet.
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Post by Owen Y on Sept 20, 2019 17:58:07 GMT 12
INNER FIDELITY - Amazon HD Music launches, But Questions Remain: " I’m still making up my mind, but generally feeling positive about the service. The More high-resolution music we have easy access to, the better our gear will sound. A rising tide lifts all ships.. "
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Post by Citroen on Sept 20, 2019 18:03:39 GMT 12
Just uploaded the latest BlueSound firmware and Amazon Music is there  90 day trial here I come! But only can see a 30 day trial...any link to the 90 day trial?
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Pundit
Post by garym on Sept 21, 2019 18:21:15 GMT 12
Is this new service accessible here? The release info seemed to suggest it wasn't.
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Pundit
Post by tonyd on Sept 22, 2019 8:48:00 GMT 12
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Post by michaelw on Sept 22, 2019 21:45:29 GMT 12
my heading is still hurting from yet more mangling of audio english.
CD quality is not high definition !
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Pundit
Post by garym on Sept 23, 2019 10:26:47 GMT 12
Some are arguing now that with the right dac, 16 bit 44.1khz can sound as good or better than most of the "high Def" stuff out there.
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Post by Owen Y on Sept 23, 2019 11:22:41 GMT 12
" Amazon Music HD provides its users access to over 50 Million songs in HD, which is designated as CD quality 16-bit / 44.1kHz FLAC. Additionally, included are “millions more” tracks available in Ultra HD designated as 24-bit / up to 192 kHz FLAC. " ( Part Time Audiophile)
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Post by Citroen on Sept 23, 2019 17:59:16 GMT 12
Given the price, available tracks, recorded resolution/quality it sounds damn fine...when/if it becomes available here.
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Post by Citroen on Oct 23, 2021 16:13:12 GMT 12
Amazon Music HD now available in NZ. I'm giving it a go, as Amazon are offering a 3 month free trial 
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Post by colinf on Oct 23, 2021 19:01:10 GMT 12
I have 3 subscriptions here; Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon HD. Tidal tends to have MQA versions of most music, Qobuz has high-res and normal res and Amazon HD has mostly normal-res with some music in HD. Sound quality-wise Qobuz is hands down the winner, the (usually) clear and blemish-free sound has most in common with vinyl. Amazon has a better selection of music though but the A-D conversion of older tracks sounds a little compromised to me. Tidal is last, even though it has the supposed benefit of MQA encoding. It sounds coloured and sometimes exaggerated. I also tried Spotify Premium, it’s similar to Amazon HD but has the biggest selection of music. These days if I’m listening to music from the computer I just use Qobuz with Audirvana. Audirvana allows me to cast it to the iFi Stream connected to whichever USB dac I’m using so I can listen in the hifi room, and use the iPad Audirvana Remote app to control the main computer’s Audirvana app.
AMR-iFi R&D
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Post by Citroen on Oct 23, 2021 20:43:24 GMT 12
I mainly use these services to sample music to see if I want to buy the vinyl version, or to download offline to listen on headphones while out and about.
So while I agree that Qobuz generally sounds better, for me my priorities are selection/range of music and offline ergonomics. Amazon and Spotify win on selection, but Tidal wins on offline usability.
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Member
Post by jeb950 on Oct 25, 2021 11:34:18 GMT 12
I've used Deezer hi rez (CD quality) for a couple of years now. Basically ever since they dropped the price in NZ to $20/month. Cannot compare it to others as I have not tried but the price is the cheapest in NZ so far?
In the meantime I'm building up my offline collection so that when these services increase the price I won't be bound to them.
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Post by Citroen on Oct 25, 2021 16:28:34 GMT 12
Don't hear much about Deezer in NZ. Wasn't even sure you could get it here.
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Post by Citroen on Oct 25, 2021 16:31:24 GMT 12
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Member
Post by jeb950 on Oct 25, 2021 20:51:17 GMT 12
Don't hear much about Deezer in NZ. Wasn't even sure you could get it here. True. It's not well known but it does seem to be cheap?
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Post by michaelw on Oct 26, 2021 9:36:50 GMT 12
I use Free Music 
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Post by Citroen on Oct 26, 2021 14:07:11 GMT 12
FM is great but you're at the mercy of the DJ.
I like to be my own DJ.
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