Integration of Amazon Music High Resolution

Whatever. I am just flabbergasted that you think what Roon does can be managed with an API when Roon has told us that is not the case. Roon does not want a half baked experience with some of the content. The UI and UE needs to be consistent.

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I seriously doubt they’d change how they work with steaming services now. They’ve stuck to their position of needing data dump even when Tidal was only integrated service and there was talk of them going out of business. They want the streaming services to work as seamless as your local library.

Sure I’d like more options but not at the expense of a worse experience. And Qobuz is getting better and better with lower prices and catalog growing. Still not quite as large as Amazon yet but improving.

With the Qobuz price reduction, I no longer have any interest in Amazon. It would be good to have another option for use with Roon, but only if it’s done right, as they did with Tidal and Qobuz.

I think it’s almost possible to have too many options. I get free Apple Music from Verizon and free Spotify from Bose. I never use either one of them since I have Tidal and Qobuz with Roon.

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The advantage of Amazon would be larger library and just a few $ savings for being prime member.

Even if integrated there are disadvantages. One is heard there are mixed format albums. They are not always using the actual tracks for that album. Qobuz still has some hires albums Amazon doesn’t. Qobuz has links to cd artwork and some albums and addition info. Also Soundliz doesn’t work with Amazon to transfer favorites.

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Nor does SongShift.

A post was split to a new topic: Amazon HD Search Capabilities

I agree that the situation seems confusing at present. I’m a new user of Roon, trying to find the right configuration of streaming offers and my local music. I too like Qobuz, but would much prefer the usability of Tidal at the moment. Amazon represents a new dimension for Roon, and I’m sure efforts are underway to address this. I haven’t seen any evidence yet that Amazon are being difficult about partnering with Roon…

For me, the primary interest in a successful Amazon HD/ Roon integration is that Quboz is a really tiny company, as of thIs August, they had only 25K USA subscribers and only 200K globally. Tidal always seems about to collapse. Amazon is a behemoth that has priced their service in a way to decimate Quboz and Tidal (at least their hifi tier). It’s within the realm of possibility that Amazon may be the only hifi streaming game in town at some point.

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and until then they don’t know their ass from their elbow re how to deliver lossless audio in a manner anyone interested in SQ would deem acceptable.

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I think it really comes down to the fact that there is no good solution out there currently. We all know Amazon issues with non compatibility w/Roon and Bluesound. Qobuz is great but small and not willing to change their usability, Tidal uses MQA etc. I think Apple and Spotify has great potential to knock them all out of the water once they get on true hi-res. The approach I will take is to stick with one and wait a year or so till the industry matures.

Amazon hasn’t even upgraded their own hardware to take advantage of full hires. They have a product called Echo Link that you could use to stream wirelessly and hook up to a dac. It’s output maxes out at 96k. Since offering up to 192k, their hardware should handle that as well.

Thought the Echo Link with Amazon HD would be affordable solution instead of using roon. I already have lifetime sub and Qobuz is now within reason. Only missing piece is larger library.

I do understand have Amazon integration gives impression of a long term streaming solution. There’s always talk of the little ones going under but that hasn’t happened yet.

No doubt, That’s when they start to raise the prices back to normal. Meanwhile likely cutting royalties to artists.That’s their business model. Come in and undercut the competition until they drive them out of business and then raise prices gradually back to what they were or higher meanwhile providing less service.

I emailed Amazon to request integration as well. As a Roon and Amazon customer, I certainly see the value in having both services integrated…and happy to ask if that helps. Amazon responded by saying they are working on it and trying to get it resolved (seems like a similar message received by others). Does that mean it is going to happen?

What do you mean by non compatibility with Bluesound?
As far as I know it’s spot on with Amazon streaming and one of the few options out there that delivers the correct output…

Can you elaborate?

Thanks!

Bluesound has it if you want it.

I’m not sure that it works that way? But regardless, Tidal’s per-play payout to the artists you do like/prefer is certainly competitive, and better-than-most other streaming services, so a Tidal subscription probably supports the artists you do like more than almost any other one does… I believe Qobuz pays out even higher. Last time I looked, I think Amazon was very near the bottom/lowest in terms of supporting the artists you do like with per-stream payouts… “TIFWIW”.

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@Tony_Rixon
Amazon HD is not compatible with Bluesound. When you play Amazon Music HD with Bluesound you cannot add song to BluOS playlist or Amazon Playlist. That option is simply not there which makes it’s useless. You cannot create playlist, go to album etc like you can for Tidal and Qobuz. This is a known issue and each party blames the other for not sharing code. We’ve still got ways for this solution to mature.

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Seems trying to make Amazon work with anything right now is a real pain.

I also looked up streaming payouts. I didn’t see Qobuz mentioned but Amazon was toward bottom list but above YouTube. The way the whole payout works was above my head.

So seems if you care about artist pay and want company that actually caters to audiophiles, Qobuz and Tidal are much better choices.

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Exactly. And no Echo device comes anywhere near taking advantage of that format. So they have to be thinking past their own devices.

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: High resolution audio from Amazon