Amazon prime music - FLAC @upto 24/96

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
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I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned this here.

Two days ago, Amazon introduced their "prime" music, which appears to be the same as their music unlimited, but offers the option of FLAC at CD 16/44.1 and up to 24/96 music streaming.
If you already have a prime account, it's an additional £13/month.

50 million songs. Basically a direct competitor to Tidal and Qobuz, but significantly cheaper.
I've just signed up for a 90 trial to see how I get on.

Looks like Qobuz and Tidal (and therefore MQA) are in big trouble.
 
Soldato
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Thanks, I've signed up for the free 90 day trial. Really hate how they advertise it as HD Music though. Gotta appeal to the masses and their bluetooth speakers though I suppose!
 
Soldato
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The problem I have with these services you could pay £100+ for a years subscription then at the end of the year, you cancel and have nothing.

Buying a CD a month and ripping to FLAC is surely a valid alternative?

The "gotta catch em all" disease I guess :(
 
Soldato
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it's about 0.3GB/hr (6/700Kb/s) so probably need to check any mobile data contract is up to it, is the existing Amazon music streaming reliable to use for 4G users.

I occassionaly take months of tidal hifi, and, at home, some of their 24/96 master tracks do sound good,
for master,Tidal desktop app (and for some android devices ?) allows exclusive use of the OS sound mixer which improves sound too.

(re-opening that can of worms ...)
For bluetooth headphones with limited 250Kb/s aac/aptx bandwidth, you may not benefit, and, the itunes music may still be better as you can bitstream directly to the headphones
 
Soldato
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The problem I have with these services you could pay £100+ for a years subscription then at the end of the year, you cancel and have nothing.

Buying a CD a month and ripping to FLAC is surely a valid alternative?

The "gotta catch em all" disease I guess :(
Streaming is so much better than just buying CDs!

Every time I hear that some artist is great, I can listen to it for no additional cost and, if I find they're crap (like Jess Glynne, for example) I've not lost anything, but it they're great (Slowthai, Superorganism) I can listen over and over again.

Streaming music and video subscription is for mugs.

For 75p I have my copy of district 9 on Blu-ray. In a year from now it's still on my shelf
I've got 200-300 DVDs that never get used but take up loads of space and are basically worthless. I'd really rather lose my money on monthly subscriptions than have that millstone grow any larger!
 
OcUK Staff
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Streaming Music is great.

Tidal Hifi and MQA are absolutely great quality and a very solid improvement.

I will stick with Tidal but the more alternatives the better.

I would not stream 24/96 through a phone though and expect the best it has to offer.
 
Associate
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Got this yesterday, surprised that a lot of what I normally listen to on Spotify was available in what they called UHD and the first 90 days is free. I do most of my listening on my desktop with a G6/HD58X and it's a major step up. UHD quality varries, I've come across a few albums at 24bit / 192Khz.
 
Soldato
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the stevehoffman thread says they have the eagles in uhd ... which is the tidal masters, test-piece. .. sounds great.

Unless you want Amazon sub-prime will it work out cheaper than £20p/m for tidal hifi ?

edit :OK £5 cheaper p/m
and you will pay the full monthly price of £14.99 (£12.99/month for Prime members) Amazon Music HD Individual Plan or £19.99 for the Amazon Music HD Family Plan with the option to cancel anytime
 
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Caporegime
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Streaming music and video subscription is for mugs.

For 75p I have my copy of district 9 on Blu-ray. In a year from now it's still on my shelf

Unless you're going to pirate stuff then there isn't an alternative for lots of video content - Netflix is king, Amazon prime is a nice extra if you're paying for it for the fast deliveries anyway (which I was as I use it enough).

I've got the music bundled in with my prime subscription, I'm not too fussed about paying for extra though... I'd agree with your idea there re: CDs, streaming (and or youtube) for convenience or for listening to new stuff then buy the CD and rip it.
 
Soldato
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Perhaps I should have signed up for the free trial. I’m pretty well setup for Spotify though... especially as my amp has Spotify connect. How’s the amazon mobile and desktop software?

How are you all getting amazon HD music to your stereos? Alexa doesn’t have digital outputs and I don’t imagine the pre amp on the Echo is really doing HD streaming any justice. Is Bluetooth viable? For serious listening (when I get the chance) I’m on Spotify from Apple TV via toslink to my DAC. Is the only other way HDMI? Do I need to get with the times?
 
Soldato
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I'm going to give 3 months a go with Amazon, to be fair the SQ seems = or better than Tidal, I'm sure I can import all my tracks from spotify to Amazon as long as they're in Amazon's library. Need to try an optical lead as only getting 16/48 at the moment.
 
Soldato
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Seems Amazon Music is a disaster via Android Auto.

Also how do you reset recently played. It's suggesting loads of rubbish that people have issued on the Echo at home can you unlink Alexa and Music
 
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