Amazon Music launched a new streaming tier today called Amazon Music HD, which offers more than 50 million tracks in HD and millions of songs in Ultra HD—the highest quality streaming audio available.
The cost of Amazon's new service price is lower than Tidal, Amazon's main competition for this quality of music streaming. Amazon plans to charge Prime customers $12.99 a month for HD listening and $14.99 a month for non-Prime members. Meanwhile Tidal HiFi sets its customers back $19.99 a month.
MORE: Amazon Music Unlimited vs Prime Music: What’s the Difference?
Amazon says its lossless HD tracks, which number more than 50 million, have a CD-quality bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz. The company also says that it has "millions" of Ultra HD songs, which have a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate up to 192 kHz.
“From rock to hip-hop to classical and pop, we believe listening to music at this level of sound will make customers fall in love again with their favorite music and artists," said Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music. "As we usher in a new listening experience for our customers and the industry, we’re combining the convenience of streaming with all of the emotion, power, clarity and nuance of the original recordings.”
Tidal has been the leader in HD streaming, but its platform is pricey. And Spotify, the $9.99 per month leading music streaming platform, has yet to introduce a lossless, HD option. Amazon Music HD has potential to become the happy medium, presenting an HD listening platform and a more affordable monthly cost.
Amazon Music HD is available now in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. New subscribers to Amazon Music will receive a 90-day free trial, and current subscribers can try Amazon Music HD at no additional cost for 90 days at amazon.com/music/unlimited/hd.
MORE: Did you know you can get Amazon Music free on your Echo?
