New subscribers to Amazon Music HD are currently getting 90 days of streaming for free.
The offer can be claimed by non-Amazon members, Prime subscribers and existing Amazon Music subscribers. The offer is running until October 19, 2020.
At just £12.99 a month for existing Prime members or £14.99 month for standard Amazon users, Amazon Music HD makes high quality, lossless audio accessible to all music fans. Existing Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can upgrade to Amazon Music HD for an additional £5 per month, whether they are on an Individual or Family plan.
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Amazon’s Music HD program offers its members premium access to over 60 million High Definition and millions of Ultra High Definition songs. These audio qualities produce a sound that is much closer to the original recording than standard streaming options.
The best way to know what the qualities on offer with Amazon Music HD provide is to try it out and feel the difference. The current 90-day free offer is the ideal opportunity to do this. If you’re into the technical specs of music streaming, or have any questions, read on for some more in-depth information.
Alternatively, head over to our Amazon Music HD article to read about all the specs, techs and best speakers for listening to the high-quality streams.
More about Amazon Music HD
What's standard streaming?
Standard streaming is the quality of audio that will typically be streamed to you by your streaming provider. The maximum quality, often under the setting High Quality, is sent at around 320 kbps. This audio is compressed to achieve this relatively small data size.
What's High Definition and Ultra High Definition streaming?
These streaming types allow for the streaming of highly defined lossless audio. HD streams at a rate of up to 850 kbps, and UHD goes as high as 3730 kbps. If you compare this to standard streaming’s modest 320 kbps, you can start to appreciate the huge amount of information that the new streaming definitions can provide. This translates to one thing – massively improved sound quality.
What’s lossless music?
To store and stream audio files, they are compressed. This means that all the parts a computer thinks you won't be able to hear are removed from a sound file, making it smaller and therefore easier to store and send. The process isn’t always correct, and while it can do an okay job, the resulting music is of a lesser quality.
Lossless doesn't remove these elements. It keeps the audio intact, as it was at the time of recording. Therefore, it's a more refined and full representation of your music – and it sounds far superior. The trade-off is that the files are larger, but with modern bandwidth speeds, this is no longer an issue for our streaming devices.