I don’t buy music live on stage. I pay to go see and hear a performance.
I really do like Tidal MQA’s. I may have to keep Tidal and Amazon. I get Apple Music free from Verizon.
I sent feedback moaning about the lack of sample rate switching and it makes using an external dac pointless.
Amazon must believe there exists a much bigger market for SD and HD music, otherwise why bother. They also must believe this gives them some advantage over Apple and Spotify.
Amazon also sell a lot of electronics, HD sound could be used to drive sales.
Roon integration could offer Amazon a very valuable and luxury interface, a usp, especially when Apple and Spotify start to release comparable products.
This could move Roon from being a niche product to the mass market via Amazon. Added to which Roon in its current form and price must be reaching the zenith of its market?
The game is definitely over for Tidal, MQA was always a bit of a nonsense.
Subscription fees…just like Prime…that’s the end-game …another regular, predictable income stream is likely Amazon’s primary objective. Making it rebbook or better whilst being cheaper is a simple way to differentiate from current streaming services and offering a discount to prime members makes it easier for folk to jump the psychological hurdle of a few more bucks a month coming off their card for a music service they may/may not make much use of.
Money for jam, music is just the grease.
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Indeed. Which is why I think Amazon might take a more Alexa-like approach to HD Music, i.e. be open to integrating with third-party hardware because it realises that every user of non-Amazon hardware that connects to the service is still paying a monthly sub to Amazon that helps build, as you say, a regular predictable income stream. Roon potentially brings a whole host of very high-end hardware to the Amazon ecosystem in one fell swoop if it were to be integrated. Despite the vast size of Amazon’s user base vs Roon, Roon is very concentrated on the very high end and Amazon just might see value in early strong momentum and find the thought of bringing all those DACs and high-end streamers and active speakers into their ecosystem in the first few months attractive.
All we can do is sit and wait and, as @bitonio very rightly pointed out, all file requests for Roon integration directly with Amazon via its feedback mechanism - it certainly can’t do any harm and might just help.
I’m glad to see Amazon offering a high-resolution service. I’m more interested about access to better masters than the actual bit rate but I agree not having bit-perfect is a problem.
Also, I think the Amazon Music app is ok but I prefer Tidal and Qobuz. No album info or credits. No browse front for genres (only new releases, stations and playlists).
Here you go. Thanks for the link.
People here argue about saving 7€ per month and thinking they are smart when dumping other services for Amazon, but they neglect the real price they pay, with their data.
Amazon is not genuinely interested in offering hi Rez music, or any other product. They will offer any product that would allow them to harvest data.
For the two other services talked about in this threat at least music is at the core of their business. Amazon Music is about your data.
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Signed up for AHD this morning. Sounds pretty good with the limited testing I’ve done so far. AHD vs personal FLAC and Tidal files sounds a bit snappier, cleaner but maybe a bit tinnier also. I’m also getting some sort of 3D spatialness on AHD. Can’t really explain it other than sort of a wrap around semi-surround sound. I kind of like it actually. More of a LIVE performance experience.
I have 3 months to test some more and hopefully Roon will have some integration before this ends or at least a tentative integration timeline for us.
Are you using Windows? It has an effect like that. You can turn it off/on in sound settings.
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Amazon needs Roon. Roon needs Amazon.
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Will I be able to use a dash button to play Amazon through Roon? Just want to be sure Amazon knows exactly what I’m listening to.
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If you’re using Amazon music in any context Amazon know exactly what you’re listening to. 
I assume you have evidence, other than just your opinion?
Like Tidal and Qobuz, that’s why Tidal offers custom playlist, but Qobuz nothing which is a real problem for a streaming service. Amazon HD is a game changer, which is a good point for lossless music.
I subscribe to both TIDAL and Qobuz. I was hoping to drop TIDAL but unfortunately there are many titles on TIDAL that are not available on Qobuz (most notably some of the electronic music I like).
I have a problem with MQA. It’s true that in some select cases they have done a great job of remastering. In the vast majority of cases, however, it’s a sham. MQA and all the BS around it just for a money grab is too much to bear for me. So I wish MQA dies a quick death.
If Roon and Amazon cannot strike a deal, it will be complicated. I just cannot see a model where Qobuz or TIDAL cannot expand their customer base to be sustainable for either.
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Tidal and MQA after the announcement…
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And since, I believe, Amazon’s cloud service hosts Tidal, Amazon has known for a good while what Tidal listeners are listening to too.
Qobuz too I believe.
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