Amazon HD Is A Challenge to Spotify, Apple and Tidal

Amazon.com Inc. introduction of  a high-resolution version of its music service is a move into higher-quality audio—at a higher price—is a sign of the music-streaming market’s maturation, reports The Wall Street Journal citing music industry executives.

Amazon Music, the No. 3 music-streaming service by subscriptions, envisions bringing better sound quality to the masses. At $12.99 a month for Prime members and $14.99 a month for nonmembers, Amazon Music HD is intended to be more affordable than comparable services such as one from Tidal, which costs $19.99 a month.

Music streaming has become mainstream—accounting for 80% of revenue from recorded music, according to an industry trade group. But in getting there, audio quality has suffered, says Steve Boom, Amazon’s vice president for music. Enough customers now see audio quality as important enough that they will pay for it, so the move into the market is worth it, he said. “This is the next wave in music streaming,” Mr. Boom said.

The new tier, available Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan, has more than 50 million audio tracks in CD-quality high definition and what the company describes as millions of tracks in even-higher-quality “Ultra-HD.”


Since the emergence of the CD—the first popular digital format—in the 1980s, there has been a running tension between convenience and audio quality—a dynamic that has only intensified with the emergence of digital downloads and streaming. Some audiophiles complained that early CDs, in particular, suffered from poorer sound quality than vinyl records. Many still believe CDs, downloads and streams sound worse than vinyl.