Amazon Prime Music to Stream 'Lossless HD Songs' to Take on Apple Music, Spotify

Mango28

Editor

posted on 5 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

29
views

Amazon Prime customers will have to pay $12.99/month (~Rs 920) and non-Prime customers will be charged $14.99/month (~Rs 1060) for Amazon Music HD.

Music streaming platform Amazon Music really never got its due of prominence. This is because of the popularity of its rival companies Apple Music and Spotify. Nevertheless, the internet retail giant is hoping that a new feature might change that. Amazon announced Amazon Music HD that presents songs in high-definition. The new tier provides more than 50 million “lossless HD songs” to its users. Amazon Prime customers will have to pay $12.99/month (~Rs 920) and non-Prime customers will be charged $14.99/month (~Rs 1,060). According to Amazon, that’s a reference to offering songs with a bit depth of 16 bits and a CD-quality sample rate of 44.1kHZ. Amazon says customers also will be able to stream “millions of more songs” in Ultra HD, which is better than CD quality and features a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate of up to 192 kHz.

Speaking about the development, Amazon Music vice president Steve Boom said that they spoke with many artists while developing Amazon Music HD, all of who were excited about the fact that fans would be able to stream their favourite music and hear it as it was originally recorded. He further added that they believe that being able to listen to music at “this level of sound” will make customers fall in love with their favourite music and artists, be it rock, hip-hop or even classical and pop.

As per reports, in the announcement, the company also included this bit of breathless praise from singer-songwriter Neil Young, “This will be the biggest thing to happen in music since the introduction of digital audio 40 years ago.” Amazon Music HD will play the highest quality audio supported by a user’s device and network conditions. The report further stated that Amazon music is compatible with a whole range of devices including those on both desktop and mobile, supporting iOS and Android, as well as some Echo devices, Fire TV and Fire tablets. The service will be launched on September 18 in the US, Germany, Japan, and the UK, and Amazon is also providing users with a 90-day free trial period.