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Amazon Music Matching Apple by Offering Hi-Fi Tier at No Extra Cost

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Moments before Apple announced that it will begin offering Spatial Audio and Lossless audio streaming for Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost, Amazon Music announced that it will also offer its subscribers HiFi quality streaming for free, Billboard reports.

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From the report:
Amazon's high-fidelity streaming service, Amazon Music HD, is now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost, the company tells Billboard. Amazon Music HD previously cost $14.99 a month ($12.99 for Prime members) while Amazon Music Unlimited, its most popular service option, is $9.99 a month ($7.99 for Prime members).
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Apple says that lossless audio and Spatial Audio using Dolby Atmos will be available starting in June at no additional cost to users. Apple says that "thousands of tracks" will support both features at launch but promises that more songs will be added "regularly".

Spotify, one of the largest music streaming providers, has promised that users will have Hifi options this year but has yet to provide a specific launch date.

Article Link: Amazon Music Matching Apple by Offering Hi-Fi Tier at No Extra Cost
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/17/amazon-music-lossless-for-free/
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brofkand

macrumors 68000
Jun 11, 2006
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I don't think any of these services are actually turning a profit. The HiFi tier was there not to cover additional costs (there aren't really any extra costs - they were already storing high-res files in their server farms and bandwith costs are a rounding error for these companies), the HiFi tiers were simply to help bump up ARPU. Race to the bottom. When will the first service drop the price from the standard $9.99 a month?
 
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A

AppleUser2

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Jun 10, 2009
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Did they say from when? I've heard that Amazon HD is actually pretty good. This move from Apple whilst welcome will destroy Quoboz and Tidal....
 
powerbook911

powerbook911

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Mar 15, 2005
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brofkand said:
I don't think any of these services are actually turning a profit. The HiFi tier was there not to cover additional costs (there aren't really any extra costs - they were already storing high-res files in their server farms and bandwith costs are a rounding error for these companies), the HiFi tiers were simply to help bump up ARPU. Race to the bottom. When will the first service drop the price from the standard $9.99 a month?
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Amazon Music (now HD) at $7.99 with Prime is a very good deal.

I'm just not going to change services.

I'm wondering about YouTube Music, they're seemingly the last "large" player that we haven't even heard rumors about lossless / HD files. I use Apple Music, but I have YouTube Music as well because I want ad-free YouTube videos.
 
chibamac

chibamac

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Jan 10, 2009
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This is amazing news! Hopefully Apple makes it so their high resolution music plays bit perfect when connected to a proper dac. Amazon music is broken in this regard.
 
F

Feyl

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Amazon Music is the worst music streaming service I've tried so far. But I'm glad they copied Apple.
 
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nutmac

nutmac

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bobenhaus said:
Amazon Prime has 175m subscribers and that is the just the Amazon prime version.
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To be fair, Amazon Prime version is seriously crippled, with only about 2 million songs. Amazon Music Unlimited individual is $7.99/month or $79/year upgrade for Prime users, or $149/year for family plan for Prime members (no monthly discount for Prime customers at $14.99/month). Amazon also offers single device (Echo or Fire TV) plan at $3.99/month (no discount for Prime customers).

Beyond price, I find no reason to choose Prime over Apple Music. The app is very crummy and uses a ton of storage space on the iPhone (well over a GB in my case). Also, the app constantly nags you to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited
 
rumz

rumz

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nutmac said:
To be fair, Amazon Prime version is seriously crippled, with only about 2 million songs. Amazon Music Unlimited individual is $7.99/month or $79/year upgrade for Prime users, or $149/year for family plan for Prime members (no monthly discount for Prime customers at $14.99/month). Amazon also offers single device (Echo or Fire TV) plan at $3.99/month (no discount for Prime customers).

Beyond price, I find no reason to choose Prime over Apple Music. The app is very crummy and uses a ton of storage space on the iPhone (well over a GB in my case). Also, the app constantly nags you to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited
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Wait... so the $7.99 prime version only has 2 million songs? What do you get for the non-prime $9.99?

(I'm just curious what Amazon's library is like compared to Spotify / Apple Music.)
 
nutmac

nutmac

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rumz said:
Wait... so the $7.99 prime version only has 2 million songs? What do you get for the non-prime $9.99?

(I'm just curious what Amazon's library is like compared to Spotify / Apple Music.)
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No, Amazon Prime Music has 2 million songs, which is a part of Prime membership ($12.99/month or $119/year). Amazon Music Unlimited (with over 70 million songs) costs extra, $7.99/month for Prime members, $9.99/month for non-members.
 
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rumz

rumz

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nutmac said:
No, Amazon Prime Music has 2 million songs, which is a part of Prime membership ($12.99/month or $119/year). Amazon Music Unlimited (with over 70 million songs) costs extra, $7.99/month for Prime members, $9.99/month for non-members.
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Ah, thanks for clarifying. Massive difference.
 
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