Article: Amazon Music HD Launches

[Sevenfeet]

Very interesting turn of events...

 

I for one am very happy that Amazon has decided to go this route since it will likely push the bigger services (Spotify and Apple) to follow suit.  It's an open secret that Spotify has been testing this for some time.  Apple has been asking for hi-res recordings from content providers for some time but as it stands, has only been offering 256 kbit "Mastered for Apple Music" recordings.

 

Yes, the advent of cheaper, wider bandwidth is a motivating factor but disk space in data centers is a lot cheaper too and frankly is a fraction of the space of all the video content out there.  But I think the real motivation is the fact that HiRes music likely has a higher profit margin than regular compressed music given the increased cost to the user versus streaming/storage.  And the streaming services and content providers would love to have higher margins any day of the week.

 

Of course, audiophiles are a fickle bunch, often difficult to attract as a permanent customer.  Amazon launched HD music today with a lot of partners but not any "front ends" like Roon or Audirvana, at least not yet.

 

Still, competition is good.  I subscribe to both Apple Music and Tidal so I'l curious to see what Apple and Spotify do in response.