Is Amazon changing music industry?
(and why I’m staying with Spotify for now)
“It’s hard to get high-resolution digital files - they are only distributed through a couple of websites and tend to be quite expensive” Nebojsa told me some 10 years ago while we were listening to Dire Straits’ Private Investigations on a Marantz reference system and, if I recall correctly, the 800D3 Bowers speakers in Sonus Art’s listening room.
I remembered that incident while trying to find some music on my computer to test out the Audeze’s newly released LCD-1 headphones that my colleague got for testing. As I found an Eagles album I had buried somewhere deep on my Dropbox, he told me that I should take a look into Amazon HD music. And so I did. Quite simply, I think it is (or rather, could be) a game-changer - all the music you could ever want, all in 16bit/44kHz (your regular CD quality, or HD, as they deem it) or better. Now admittedly, with the best speakers in the world, I probably wouldn’t be able to hear the difference between 16bit and 24bit audio, but even on the Audeze’s, the difference between Spotify’s “hi-res” MP3s and Amazon’s HD content was very, very obvious.
You might stop me here and say, “yes, ok, but what about Tidal”?
And yes, Tidal has been a strong player which I have supported, if for nothing else, for the way they treat affiliated artists. But the biggest hurdle to Tidal for me was always the price. While $20 a month is not inconceivable, it was exactly double what Spotify is charging. Given that I don’t have the equipment to enjoy it, it was a no-brainer. But Amazon Music HD is $12 - that’s only $2 more than Spotify. Let’s put it this way, if you have a respectable hi-fi system, I think it’s a no brainer.
So why am I still sticking to Spotify?
Well, most of my listening is happening at work on Bose noise-cancelling headphones which sound quite crappy in the best of times. When that is paired with some cool features Spotify offers such as discover weekly and the fact that experience of AmazonMusic app leaves a lot to be desired (why do I have to log in again every time I turn on the computer?), makes the extra $20 a year not worth i. But, let’s put it this way - if I had something to appreciate the quality of the streaming on, I’d probably be saving $100 a year.
When all is said and done though, I’m excited that there is a new player in town, and that if I ever have the chance to sit down with Nebojsa (who is now probably into vinyl) again, I will be able to pull out almost any album I could think of, all for $12 a month.