Amazon takes on Tidal with HD music streaming

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Low cost, lossless listening

(Image credit: Amazon)

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.”

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.

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Kate Kozuch
Kate Kozuch

Kate Kozuch is the managing editor of social and video at Tom’s Guide. She writes about smartwatches, TVs, audio devices, and some cooking appliances, too. Kate appears on Fox News to talk tech trends and runs the Tom's Guide TikTok account, which you should be following if you don't already. When she’s not filming tech videos, you can find her taking up a new sport, mastering the NYT Crossword or channeling her inner celebrity chef.