Amazon Music HD Lossless Audio Gets An Effective Price Cut, Now Standard On Unlimited Tier
Lossless options start with 16-bit at 44.1 kHz “CD quality” audio, which is available across 70 million songs in the Amazon Music catalog. The top tier is called “Ultra HD,” offering 24-bit depth at a sample rate of 192 kHz. Ultra HD, for now, is only available on 7 million songs. Like Apple’s announcement of Spatial Audio support, Amazon says that its support for 3D Audio formats is expanding at a rapid clip. Amazon Music HD supports not only Dolby Atmos but also the Sony 360RA standard.
The best news of all for subscribers is that there is no price hike with Amazon Music HD. If you’re already an Amazon HD subscriber, you’re getting an effective price cut. Amazon Music HD previously cost $14.99/month or $12.99/month for Amazon Prime members. Amazon Music HD is now rolled into the standard Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, which costs $9.99/month or $7.99/month for Prime Members. For those keeping score, that’s $2/month less than Apple Music if you’re an Amazon Prime member.
“When we first launched Amazon Music HD, our goal was to lead the industry by enabling music fans around the world to stream the best quality recording, the way artists intended their music to be heard,” said Amazon Music VP Steve Boom. “We’re thrilled now to make Amazon Music HD available to everyone at no extra cost. All music fans should have access to this quality of music, and now they do!”
Amazon Music HD is available right now for new and existing Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers. If you’re already paying $12.99/$14.99 per month for Amazon Music HD, your pricing will shift to the lower $7.99/$9.99 per month rate during your next billing cycle.
Tidal, which burst onto the streaming music scene touting its lossless catalog, is now the odd man out with a monthly price of $19.99. Now that Apple and Amazon are charging half that price (or less), it’s going to be hard for Tidal to continue “business as usual” without adjusting its pricing as well.
