Amazon launches lossless high-res music service!

[g29]

"... Amazon Music HD offers customers more than 50 million lossless HD songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (CD quality). ..."

How is 16/44 High Definition ??? I would consider it standard definition.

 

[AnalogDE]

"... Amazon Music HD offers customers more than 50 million lossless HD songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (CD quality). ..."

How is 16/44 High Definition ??? I would consider it standard definition.

It goes up to 24/192

 

[Juhazi]

"The service is now live in the UK, US, Germany and Japan. "

I'm paying only for Spotify Premium.

 

[REK2575]

Bye bye Tidal / MQA / Apple Music.

The fact that Amazon HD is going hi-res without adopting MQA is very good news indeed.

In light of this, I'm a little bummed that I blew $250 on an annual Qobuz subscription a couple of months ago... although I have yet to see if Amazon's classical library is at all comparable to Qobuz.

 

[g29]

It goes up to 24/192

The press release stated 16/44 was HIGH DEF and 24/192 was ULTRA HIGH DEF. Truth in advertising, not so much. 16/44 - SD and 24/192 - HD. Don't actually know what ULTRA HIGH DEF audio is (384KHz) ???

"... High-resolution audio, also known as High-definition audio or HD audio, is a technical and marketing term used by some recorded-music retailers and high-fidelity sound reproduction equipment vendors. It refers to higher than 44.1 kHz sample rate and/or higher than 16-bit linear bit depth. It usually means 96 kHz or 192 kHz, sometimes informally written as "96k" or "192k", meaning a Nyquist frequency of 48 kHz. However, there also exist 44.1 kHz/24-bit, 48 kHz/24-bit and 88.2 kHz/24-bit recordings that are labeled HD Audio. ..."

High-resolution audio

 

[AnalogDE]

The press release stated 16/44 was HIGH DEF and 24/192 was ULTRA HIGH DEF. Truth in advertising, not. 16./44 - SD and 24/192 - HD.

These are arbitrary definitions.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Pretty cool, but unless they can prove that they pay artists more than Tidal, I'll stick with Tidal. Now if they make the service free to already existing prime accounts, count me in. It would be cool if they gave the customer the option of either prime video or prime ultra music, for free.

Also prime video blocks most VPN use, I wonder if that is the case for the music service also?

 

[amirm]

I think they are clever in their naming to capture the average music listener who associates those terms with TV resolution.

 

[g29]

FIFY

These are arbitrary misleading BS marketing definitions.

 

[Thomas savage]

I'd be more excited if they were offering ' mastered for hifi' rather than ' all you need ' and ' number reassurance ' options.

 

[Soniclife]

I'd be more excited if they were offering ' mastered for hifi' rather than ' all you need ' and ' number reassurance ' options.

I agree, but they are not in control of that, unless they start buying music labels.

 

[Thomas savage]

I think they are clever in their naming to capture the average music listener who associates those terms with TV resolution.

That's probably why this is happening, HD subscriptions in TV have proved good ' added value ' systems so it's being translated to audio on the back of TV informing and conditioning the market .

I'm sure many will blissfully listen to full HD audio via their Amazon echo.

 

[AudioSceptic]

lossless HD songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (CD quality). In addition, customers can stream millions more songs in Ultra HD (better than CD quality), with a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate up to 192 kHz.

This service might be welcome but I do object to this mangling of established terms. CD is "standard definition" (SD) *not* HD, which should be reserved for the 24 bit and > 48 k formats.

Edit: I see that others beat me to it!

 

[amirm]

This service might be welcome but I do object to this mangling of established terms. CD is "standard definition" (SD) *not* HD, which should be reserved for the 24 bit and > 48 k formats.

I am not bothered by the naming. If that cons more people into getting it so that the service won't stop, I am happy.

 

[Thomas savage]

I am not bothered by the naming. If that cons more people into getting it so that the service won't stop, I am happy.

Morals go right out the window with you and high definition music streaming

Your MQA shilling cheques might shrink so I'd cut back on the hand cut with nail clippers imported tea .

 

[g29]

I am not bothered by the naming. If that cons more people into getting it so that the service won't stop, I am happy.

When terms are redefined/expanded/modified to fit social/marketing constructs they just spread confusion and ignorance. Redefining the terms like byte, nibble, lick, bit and sample rate have signficant rammifications. I thought this was a science forum ? You did mention the key word though, "CON".

 

[AudioSceptic]

"... Amazon Music HD offers customers more than 50 million lossless HD songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (CD quality). ..."

How is 16/44 High Definition ??? I would consider it standard definition.

It goes up to 24/192

No, they are calling anything above CD "Ultra HD".

 

[Hugo9000]

Compact Disc is capable of providing a closer to real life experience of music/audio than "HD" video can for images. So I for one don't have a problem with them calling CD-quality "high definition." If DVD was "standard definition," then low to medium bitrate MP3 is standard definition for music. Just because we've had essentially "high definition" audio available for decades doesn't make it crap.

 

[Matias]

The technical bit

• Spotify: MP3, 320kbps
• Apple Music: AAC, 256kbps
• Amazon HD: FLAC, 16 bit, 44.1kHz
• Amazon Ultra HD: FLAC, 24 bit, 192kHz

 

[infiniteloop]

So would this new service be a waste of money for those of us who bought an amazon echo link amp. Didn't Amir says something about a 24 kHz limitation?