Does Amazon Music Ever Actually Work?

[Crook]

I have been streaming Amazon Music Unlimited for over 3 years now. I spent a couple of thousand dollars on equipment and tried numerous ways to use this service, but never without all sorts of problems that Amazon can't or won't address.

I have tried to stream through Amazon's apps on my iPad mini, my Roku box, and my Google TV. For nearly a year I tried two different Eversolo A6 Gen 2 streamers. But I can't get Amazon to consistently play an album or a playlist without it arbitrarily stopping at some point (sometimes in mid-song). As I write this, I have been trying for about half an hour to get it to play any album or list past the first song. I don't have this sort of problem streaming videos from Netflix, or Amazon, or You Tube, or anything other source. Selections play when I start playback and end when they are done (unless I intentionally stop playback myself). So, I am assuming that there is no problem with my Internet connection.

Amazon has wasted a lot of my time by not responding to my repeated requests for help and offering no explanation for this behavior and taken no action when I reach anyone who claims to want to help. I have tried other streaming services, but they all have smaller libraries (omitting music that I frequently listen to) and many of them have poorer quality for approximately the same price as Amazon Music Unlimited. (The only ones that sounded comparable to my aging ears were Tidal and Quobuz.)

Wiim. It works perfectly in the Wiim app, one of the only products with proper Amazon integration. You have to maintain playlists in the Amazon app, but it's all there to play on the Wiim. Like you, I think they have by far the largest HD & UHD catalog out there. I can find almost anything, even random house music from 1990, only available on YouTube usually etc. When streaming through the app it can indeed be buggy and don't expect support from them. But through the Wiim app, works flawlessly.

 

[jimmyjames8]

Works on my Wiim Pro Plus but I only used it for about a month or 2 with and without the "HD" stream. "HD" did sound really good but I dropped it after a month or so because I was only using it about once a week for 4 hrs. Never had any problems. I mostly use my Pro+ to stream a local jazz college radio station still only once or twice a week for a few hrs at a time.

 

[popej]

I can add, that Amazon Music worked on my Pioneer AVR LX305. I didn't use it much, only checked, that it played Atmos. I had a feeling, that i was Atmos over stereo, so I prefered FireTV with multichannel.
I think Onkyo and Integra AVR should work too.

 

[Alannn]

I prefer the Wiim app for Amazon Music to the Amazon app on my phone. Especially the slide control for volume. Amazon app only uses phone buttons for volume which has steps to large.

 

[Brian Hall]

2. Are you saying that no streamers work with this service without arbitrarily cutting out during playback (and none other than iOs devices that I have had any experience with will support gapless playback)?

3. Which services would you reccomend as a replacement for Amazon, which doesn't have the above issues?

No problems here with playing Amazon Music HD on a Wiim Ultra, an Eversolo DMP-A6 (not gen 2), my Hiby DAP, my phone, a couple of tablets and various Echo speakers in every room.

I'm listening to a playlist on Amazon Music on the Wiim Ultra now.

I also use Spotify which can play on every device with either the app or Spotify Connect. If I had to choose only one service to keep, it would be Spotify.

 

[IsaacOscar]

No problems here with playing Amazon Music HD on a Wiim Ultra, an Eversolo DMP-A6 (not gen 2), my Hiby DAP, my phone, a couple of tablets and various Echo speakers in every room.

I'm listening to a playlist on Amazon Music on the Wiim Ultra now.

I also use Spotify which can play on every device with either the app or Spotify Connect. If I had to choose only one service to keep, it would be Spotify.

Why in the world would you pay for two services? (unless there's music only available on one, and vice versa...)

 

[Brian Hall]

Why in the world would you pay for two services?

Why not? Neither one cost very much. Amazon HD has Atmos that I can listen to on living room setup. Spotify has everything else and has the best app of any of the services.

I tried Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer and Roon. None of them were worth keeping.

 

[IsaacOscar]

Why not? Neither one cost very much. Amazon HD has Atmos that I can listen to on living room setup.

Aah, that makes sense, thanks. I've only got very nice stereo headphones, so I've never bothered to try surround music.

 

[Brian Hall]

Aah, that makes sense, thanks. I've only got very nice stereo headphones, so I've never bothered to try surround music.

Atmos music can sound great with the right music / mix.

 

[DAP chap]

Another very satisfied customer here, and a new ASR member: I have no experience with anything iOS, but I have run it on Roku for years, and especially daily on one or more of the following: on two desktop NUCs, two Surface Pros (a Pro 2 is a music-dedicated device Bluetooth-connected full-time to my Rotel-integrated-based hi-fi setup), three DAPs -two of which connect wired or wirelessly to my amp, plus my Samsung phone -mostly in my car. They all run their respective Amazon Music apps, and the look and feels is familiar on all of them. I mostly play albums or some favorite "soundtrack" or "favorites" selection. This moment I'm listening to an Ahmad Jamal Trio treat on "My Soundtrack" playing through my NUC. It's very rare that I experience a problem, and I don't recognize any that you've described.

Yes: three years is a remarkable level of PATIENCE and TOLERANCE. Whatever your unfortunate experiences, they are likely explained by exceptional or ill-understood incompatibilities with your individual devices or combinations thereof. Good luck getting past this, and I do recommend that doing so is definitely worthwhile.

Amazon has led me to amazing music and enabled great individual and shared listening experiences.

 

[Leeken]

Used Amazon for two years,never had a single problem through a Wiim streamer,plays gapless if that’s how the album is intended,literally not a single problem ever.

 

[Yersinia Bestmate]

Are you sure the problem is not in your internet connection? Stopping suddenly sounds like net issue.

 

[ejr]

It's not. There is no stopping when streaming video from any channel -- and I do that much more often than streaming audio. No truncating the beginnings either. Also, Amazon admits that this is a problem that it isn't going to bother to fix.

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

I've been on Amazon Music Unlimited since they went HD and I've never had a problem. I have a family account, with 5 users (2 kids 3 adults) and use it on Iphones, iPads, android phones, a SONOS smart speaker an WiiM devices.

 

[popej]

Restored my subscription and tested my Pioneer LX305. It doesn't play gapless. It even display message "connecting" between tracks. But it plays Atmos. HD too, if anyone wants it.
I guess that other current AVRs from Pioneer, Onkyo and Integra work the same.

 

[valerianf]

Since several years I am using Amazon music HD without any issue.
An Amazon 4k dongle is plugged in a HDMI input of my AVR.
I can get a stereo signal up to 24 bits/192 kHz.

 

[Jon L]

IME Amazon Music app has many issues on smart TV's and smartphones, but it has most success on my Windows PC's, which I use as servers on several "audiophile" systems into outboard DAC's. The biggest problem is the (stupid) lack of automatic bitrate matching with the original music file..

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

IME Amazon Music app has many issues on smart TV's and smartphones, but it has most success on my Windows PC's, which I use as servers on several "audiophile" systems into outboard DAC's. The biggest problem is the (stupid) lack of automatic bitrate matching with the original music file..

The only workaround I know is to use a WiiM device. Use the WiiM Home app and it forces original bitrate.

 

[popej]

Next problem with Amazon music. Albums contains mixed tracks, some are Atmos, other not. Volume level differences between them are like 12-18dB. you can listen to music at normal level and then get an unacceptable sound level at next track.
FireTV stick could cope with level differences, Pioneer AVR can't.

 

[goryu]

I use an LG TV and a mac mini to stream amazon music without any issues either way.