Amazon Music Review

History

Amazon’s first started selling digital music in 2008 and became the first music store to sell music with digital rights management (DRM) from many of the major record companies. Streaming started with a forerunner of Amazon Prime in 2014 and Amazon Music Unlimited, its full catalogue streaming service was launched in late 2016.

Many pundits see Smart Speakers as a major area for growth in music streaming and Amazon is well placed to take advantage of this with its Amazon Echo products.

Amazon stole a march on its rivals Spotify and Apple Music with the launch of Amazon Music HD this October which gives subscribers access to 50 million CD Quality tracks and ‘millions of songs’ in full 24 bit HiRes. All this can be yours for an additional £5 per month if you are an existing Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber which makes this something of a bargain especially when combined with Prime membership. A decent internet connection will be needed for Amazon Music HD with Amazon recommending 1.5 to 2Mbps for HD (CD Quality) streaming and 5 to 10 Mbps for Ultra HD (HiRes) streaming. You may also need to reconsider your data plan as a 3 ½ minute song goes from 9 MB as an MP3 to 51 MB (CD Quality) and 153 MB for the HiRes version.

Services

Prime Music

Prime Music is an Ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to 2 million tracks and is included free with an Amazon Prime account. A Prime account costs £7.99 per months (£79 annual subscription) but for this you also get Prime Video, Unlimited One-day delivery, Prime Photos (unlimited photo storage) and Twitch Prime (monthly games, exclusive in-game content and Twitch channel subscriptions). 50 30 day free trial is available.

A Prime Student subscription is available for £3.99 per month (£39 annual subscription) with a 6 month free trial.

Standard Quality Streaming 256 kbps MP3

Amazon Music Unlimited

All plans are Standard Quality Streaming 256 kbps MP3

Single Device Plan £3.99/month 30 day free trial

Amazon Music Unlimited Single Device Plan is Ad-free on-demand service offering only online access to Amazon’s complete catalogue of 50 million tracks. This subscription is for a single Amazon Echo or Fire TV device.

Individual Plan Prime members: £7.99/month (£79 annual), Non Prime: £9.99/month 30 day free trial

Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan is Ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to Amazon’s complete catalogue of 50 million tracks including all of its supported devices.

Family Plan Prime members: £14.99/month (£149 annual), Non Prime: £14.99/month 30 day free trial

Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan is Ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to Amazon’s complete catalogue of 50 million tracks including all of its supported devices. Up to six family members can share this subscription.

For students Prime or Non Prime: £4.99/month 6 month ‘free trial’* (*30 day free trial +5 month credit towards your subscription)

Amazon Music Student Plan is a low cost version of the Individual plan i.e. an Ad-free on-demand service offering online access and offline playback to Amazon’s complete catalogue of 50 million tracks including all of its supported devices.

Amazon Music HD

Amazon Music HD is an ad-free on-demand service offering online access to 50 million songs in ‘High Definition’ (CD Quality) and ‘millions of songs’ in Ultra High Definition (24 bit HiRes)

Amazon Music HD members: £14.99/month (Non Prime), £12.99/month (Prime)

Existing UK Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers (Individual or Family Plan) can upgrade to Amazon Music HD for an additional £5/month.

Availability

Prime Music

Services and conditions vary from country to country. Prime Music is available in the UK (but not in the Republic of Ireland), Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the US.

Amazon Music Unlimited

Services and conditions vary from country to country. Amazon Music Unlimited is now available in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK, US, Uruguay.

Amazon Music HD

Available in the US, UK, Germany and Japan.

Audio Quality

Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Music Unlimited encodes its ‘MP3 files using variable bit rates for optimal audio quality and file sizes, aiming at an average of 256 kilobits per second (kbps)’ with a maximum of 320 kbps.

Amazon Music HD

Amazon Music HD offers lossless audio in two quality ranges – HD and Ultra HD. HD tracks are 16-bit audio, with a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (CD Quality) and an average bitrate of 850 kbps. Ultra HD tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits, with sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps (HiRes).

HD tracks are 16-bit audio, with a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (CD Quality) and an average bitrate of 850 kbps. Ultra HD tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits, with sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps (HiRes).

Content

50 million tracks in a variety of genres (Pop, Rock, Classical, Jazz, World, Soundtracks etc) in both MP3 and High Definition (CD Quality). ‘Millions of songs’ are available in High Definition (HiRes) according to the streamer.

Music Discovery

The usual search and playlist functions are available on all platforms. Other discovery features include My Music, libraries and personalised recommendations based on previous plays.

Features

Offline playback is supported with the exception of Prime Music subscriptions.

There is good support for mobile apps (Android and iOS) and these are available from the Play Store and App Store.  A dedicated Android TV app was released at the end of 2018. A PC desktop app is available as well as a web player.

As you might expect there is also good support for Amazon’s hardware with good integration to Fire Tablets, Fire TV and Amazon Echo. Alexa-enabled Echo devices (2nd generation and later), Fire TVs and Fire Tablets will all support the new Amazon Music HD service. Most recent (post 2014) devices (iOS, Android, Mac and PC) will support the new HD service as well.

To start your 30-day free trial on your echo device, just ask ‘Alexa, try Amazon Music Unlimited’.

A dedicated app for the Xbox One was released to users in the US with the promise of availability in other countries ‘coming soon’.

Home entertainment systems from Samsung, Sonos, DTS Play-Fi, Roku and Bose are supported either directly or via a dedicated app.

In October 2019 Amazon added a new app for Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD running tvOS 12.0 and later and is available to customers in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Japan, and India

In Car Streaming is also supported with dedicated integrations to Audi via the Audi Multi Media Interface; BMW, Ford and Mini models via any iOs or Android mobile device.