Amazon just killed Tidal


Today Amazon released Amazon Music Unlimited HD streaming for $12.99 per month for  Amazon Prime members.

There is a free trial.

Streaming is in CD and High Rez quality!

50 million songs!

Just started my subscription. More info later.
don_c55
I purchased and downloaded a Led Zeppelin song at 24/96 and the spectrum shows a brick wall filter at 20K like it is an upsampled redbook CD, it may be a 24/96 file but it is only about 5 Mb compared to the same song at 24/96 from HDtracks that is over 90 mB... In preferences I chose to buy and download at Ultra HD resolution. The Amazon file is also MP3.... something fishy at Amazon I think
I got this on another forum

"Those settings are for the "offline listening" downloads that are tied to your Amazon Music / Music HD player and streaming subscription. Cancel your streaming subscription and they're gone.

Purchased downloads that you can keep permanently come from the regular Amazon store, in MP3 only. From Amazon's perspective it's natural to cross-sell, but I think a lot of customers are going to be confused and unhappy


.

so even though in Amazon you have the option to select HD downloads after you purchase a song, you only get an MP3 file when you do it
It is not Roon-compatible at present, nor does it work with most streamers. But that is just a matter of time. What is bad is that it is unlikely ever to work with Chromecast Audio, which is a real shame.

My prediction: I think this will kill off Tidal and MQA. I think Qobuz may survive but I am not by any means certain. I also suspect Apple will follow to hi-res but am not so sure about Spotify, at least not in the short to medium term.
Take this for what it is worth, as I am about as tech savvy as your run-of-the-mill orangutan. With that said, I have been a subscriber to TIDAL for a year or so, which I stream through my Aurender X100L server. In the past, I had Amazon, but moved to TIDAL for the better resolution.

When I read this thread a couple of nights ago and saw there was a free trial, I decided to give Amazon HD a whirl. I found I couldn’t use it with my iPad, which is too old for the download. However, I was able to download it on my Mac laptop, and then had no problems linking it with my Aurender wirelessly. Granted, it shows that I am getting "only" redbook resolution, which I assume will improve only when Aurender gets on board and integrates Amazon HD as it has with TIDAL? I look forward to learning more about this from more experienced, knowledgeable folks on this issue.

What I can say is that even with redbook resolution, it sounds very good to me. I’ve only had a short time to play with it, but I will get a better handle this weekend on comparisons between the new and improved Amazon and ripped files both in FLAC and WAV on my Aurender. So far, I am pleased with what I’ve heard and optimistic that better things are yet to come.


Can anybody answer if you can now get complete albums as opposed to just individual tracks?
For example on both Tidal and Qobuz you bookmark or favourite the albums you want to then revisit anytime from "your favourite" tab.
Can Amazon now do this?
It could not earlier in the year.