Amazon Launches New Lossless Streaming Tier

The HD tier was praised by Neil Young

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Amazon employees are urging the company to step it up when it comes to fighting climate change.
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Looks like Tidal’s got a new rival in the high-fidelity streaming market: Amazon launched a new tier of its music service today, Amazon Music HD, which will offer lossless versions of audio files for streaming and downloading.

As The Verge points out, the HD tier — which will cost $14.99 a month or $12.99 a month if you’re an Amazon Prime member — will offer a catalog of 50 million “High Definition” songs (16-bit/44.1kHz) and “millions” of even higher quality “UltraHD” tracks (24-bit/192kHz).

“It’s a pretty big deal that one of the big three global streaming services is doing this — we’re the first one,” Amazon’s VP of Music Steve Boom told the Verge.

Neil Young, who has been a champion of high-resolution music in the digital age, praised the new service in a press release. “Earth will be changed forever when Amazon introduces high quality streaming to the masses,” he said. “This will be the biggest thing to happen in music since the introduction of digital audio 40 years ago.”

You can sign up for a 90-day free trial of Amazon Music HD here.

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