Amazon is taking on Tidal with a better-than-CD-quality audio streaming plan called Amazon Music HD, which starts at $12.99 a month.
Part of Amazon Music, the new HD catalog offers over 50 million tracks in either CD or 24-bit quality, which, unlike Tidal's MQA format, don't need a special decoder to listen to in hi-res.
Streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play Music are only able to offer compressed files. Amazon is one of only a handful of companies that offer high-quality FLAC streams. Desktop users will need to download Amazon's software to listen in HD.
Neil Young's PonoPlayer.
Musician Neil Young launched the ill-fated hi-res Pono player several years ago, but he is excited (probably a little too excited tbh) that Amazon is embracing lossless audio.
"Earth will be changed forever when Amazon introduces high quality streaming to the masses," Young said in a statement. "This will be the biggest thing to happen in music since the introduction of digital audio 40 years ago."
The service costs $12.99 (£12.99) a month for Prime members and $14.99 (£14.99) a month for regular Amazon customers, or an additional $5 a month for current subscribers. Current memberships start at $7.99 a month. It's not yet offered in Australia.
In comparison, Tidal charges $19.99 a month for its lossless plan while newcomer Qobuz charges $25 a month for 24-bit streams.
Amazon is currently offering 90-day free trials of Music HD, which includes Family memberships.