Amazon Music HD review

Just a decade ago, I would spend my weekends sitting between library aisles, thumbing through cracked CD cases to find new music. With the advent of streaming services, however, the process has been streamlined. While I miss the days of camping out at the library, I revel in the convenience of a virtually endless music library in my pocket. Amazon Music Unlimited HD takes this a step further by offering more than 50 million CD-quality songs at a hard-to-resist price. Whether you’re an audio purist or casual listener, Amazon Music Unlimited HD will serve you well.

Editor’s note: this review was updated on May 12, 2022 to reflect changes in the way Amazon Music Unlimited pricing works, update the list of compatible devices, and match the way the services are now labeled.

Related: Amazon Music HD vs Spotify Premium

What is Amazon Music Unlimited?

Amazon Music Unlimited costs $7.99/month for Prime members.

Amazon Music Unlimited is a music streaming service and subscribers now get HD and Ultra HD playback at no extra cost. Since its launch in September 2019, Unlimited HD has grown in popularity, particularly among the audiophile crowd, and has already accrued more than 55 million listeners. And anyone whose pride and joy rests in their music collection will rejoice at how Amazon Music Unlimited Ultra HD delivers lossless FLAC audio at 24-bit/192kHz.

While it may not have the same cultural clout as Tidal HiFi, which is backed by music power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, it does what Amazon is known for: undercutting the competition. For anyone looking for the best value in lossless audio, your search ends with here: the service costs USD $9.99/month or $7.99/month (or $79 if you sign up for year-long subscription) for non-Prime members and Prime members, respectively.

Who should get Amazon Music Unlimited?

The “now playing” window is plainly designed and easy to understand.

• Amazon Prime members get a great deal on Amazon Music Unlimited for just $7.99/month, making it an absolute steal for listeners in search of a lossless audio streaming service.
• Fans of FLAC will enjoy the high-resolution streaming quality afforded by Amazon Music Unlimited and its library of Ultra HD songs.
• Everyone will enjoy Amazon’s vast music library which covers the oldies, classics, and modern-day hits. Plus, the interface is easy to intuit even for the less tech-savvy among us.

Related: Amazon Echo Buds (2nd gen) review

What streaming quality does Amazon Music Unlimited support?

Amazon Music Unlimited has two types of high-quality streaming: high definition (HD) and Ultra HD, both of which are encoded by the lossless FLAC codec. There are also standard quality tracks available of up to 320 kbps with lossy compression. HD audio streams up to 850kbps, which is more than double the bitrate of lossy streaming services. You can enjoy more than 50 million songs in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality, which is a huge lossless library to have at your fingertips.

Amazon Music Unlimited HD delivers some of the best streaming quality among competitors like Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz.

In order to take advantage of Amazon’s Ultra HD hi-res quality (lossless 24-bit/192kHz resolution), your device must support it. This is something my desktop is unable to do as it maxes out at 24-bit/44.1kHz playback. To see the best playback quality your device is capable of, click the track quality button next to a song title; my Samsung Galaxy S10e, on the other hand, may stream 24-bit/48kHz audio.

Lossless audio is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. Where Amazon Music used to have a huge leg up on Apple Music, the two are at a more level playing field now that Apple Music has lossless streaming options. The maximum audio quality it now offers is 24-bit/192kHz.

Streaming quality is about more than kilobits per second

When looking at streaming services, it’s easy to judge audio quality by a file’s transfer rate (kilobits per second). However, this is an oversimplified—and often inaccurate—way to understand quality. Instead, we have to take file type into account when discussing audio compression. File compression comes in all different flavors and file types, like the MP3 format, to account for human hearing limitations.

These formats don’t just randomly discard data; instead, they take psychoacoustics into account to intelligently remove information the human ear and brain are incapable of processing. If you don’t have time to see our deep-dive on the differences between audio and file compression, that’s ok: Amazon Music HD encodes via FLAC anyway, yielding lossless data transfer.

Streaming ServiceMax streaming qualityMax Desktop Quality(kb/s)Supported Formats

Streaming Service

Qobuz

Max streaming quality

24bit / 192kHz

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

1,411

Supported Formats

AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless

Streaming Service

Amazon Music HD

Max streaming quality

24bit / 192kHz

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

3,730

Supported Formats

FLAC

Streaming Service

Tidal HiFi

Max streaming quality

24bit / 192kHz

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

4,608

Supported Formats

AAC, ALAC, FLAC, MQA

Streaming Service

Deezer HiFi

Max streaming quality

16bit / 44.1kHz

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

1,411

Supported Formats

FLAC

Streaming Service

Google Play Music

Max streaming quality

320kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

320

Supported Formats

AAC, ALAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA

Streaming Service

Deezer Premium

Max streaming quality

320kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

Supported Formats

MP3

Streaming Service

Spotify Premium

Max streaming quality

320kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

320

Supported Formats

AAC, Ogg Vorbis

Streaming Service

Apple Music

Max streaming quality

24bit / 192kHz

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

256

Supported Formats

AAC

Streaming Service

YouTube Music Premium

Max streaming quality

256kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

256

Supported Formats

AAC

Streaming Service

SoundCloud Go+

Max streaming quality

256kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

256

Supported Formats

AAC

Streaming Service

Slacker Radio

Max streaming quality

320kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

320

Supported Formats

MP3

Streaming Service

Pandora

Max streaming quality

192kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

192

Supported Formats

AAC

Streaming Service

Spotify Free

Max streaming quality

160kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

128

Supported Formats

AAC

Streaming Service

Deezer Free

Max streaming quality

128kbps

Max Desktop Quality(kb/s)

Supported Formats

MP3

What devices support Amazon Music Unlimited HD?

Android Authority

Both the LG V40 ThinQ and iPhone XS Max are compatible with Amazon Unlimited HD HD.

Almost all iPhones and iPads released since 2014 running iOS 11 or later support HD and Ultra HD, limited to 24-bit/48kHz playback. Anyone who wants to listen to higher sample rates needs to invest in a DAC that can support those rates.

Apple AirPlay also supports HD playback, meaning devices like the Sonos One (Gen 2) and Apple Homepod mini are great devices to pair with Amazon Music Unlimited HD. Mac users whose devices are from 2013 or later can listen to HD and Ultra HD music from the desktop app. Granted, this takes a bit of tweaking in the audio settings: enter the Applications folder, open Audio MIDI Setup.app, and update the speaker or headphone format to the highest available sample rate (24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz).

Google Pixel 4a owners can stream high-resolution audio from Amazon Music HD.

Android users with a device from 2014 or later with Android 5.0 and on can listen to HD and Ultra HD, limited to 48kHz. Chromecast Gen 2 and Gen 3 devices support HD, but other devices with Google Cast vary in their support for this quality level. Seeing how Windows is more confusing, you’ll have to check to see if your laptop or desktop’s integrated DAC can support Amazon’s HD and Ultra HD qualities.

Amazon has a laundry list of preferred brands that support its Music HD playback including Echo Studio, Bose, Sony, Sonos (HD only), Klipsch, Pioneer, Polk, Sennheiser, and more.

How does Amazon Music Unlimited work?

Basic playback controls are available from the notification shade.

Amazon Music Unlimited has both mobile and desktop apps that let you find and play HD and Ultra HD tracks. The interfaces for each are very similar, making it easy to switch between the two. Amazon’s app isn’t the most beautiful, but it’s serviceable. Sure, it feels outdated compared to Apple Music and Deezer, but many will appreciate the function-before-form philosophy. Animations like rising and falling volume level bars are overlaid atop a playlist header image on both apps, which may be neat to some.

Navigation is clear cut

Both apps use an intuitive design language. On mobile, the bottom row divides access into “home,” “find,” “my music,” and “Alexa.” The home tab resembles all other streaming services’ home tabs: users are greeted with suggested albums and songs, popular playlists, and featured releases. Amazon Music Unlimited also provides a set of curated Ultra HD playlists, so you can instantly access hi-res audio files without digging through the app.

Amazon Music Unlimited (right) displays streaming quality right from the playback screen.

The “find” tab has a search banner with descending broad categories below: playlists, stations, new releases, and charts. Search functionality is similar to Spotify; once you begin typing, suggestions populate and continue to do so the more you type. It also saves recent searches, which can easily be cleared. When you select to search by playlist, you can filter results by mood and genre. I liked searching by mood as a way of switching up my workout playlist.

In order to make use of Alexa, you have to agree to the terms and conditions which include granting microphone access. Although I’m wary of granting any application microphone access, I do appreciate how quickly Alexa registers and responds to commands. It’s significantly faster than when I use Google Assistant to skip tracks on YouTube Music or Spotify. I find it fascinating, yet unsurprising, that Google Assistant access is blocked when using the Amazon Music app. In order to ask Google anything, you must first exit the Amazon Music app which can remain running in the background. You can, however, stream your music from Amazon Music to a Google Home device such has the Google Nest Audio by using Chromecast from your smartphone.

Google Assistant access is blocked when using the Amazon Music app.

The settings menu may be accessed by hitting the three stacked dots in the top-right corner of the screen. Within the menu, you may toggle things like loudness normalization, hands-free Alexa access, automatic downloads, a sleep timer, and more. You can also designate where downloads are stored, be it locally or on an external microSD card.

Music playback, creating playlists, and more

Users can easily create playlists, download music, and view albums from the mobile app.

Immediately upon selecting a song to play, the “now playing” window pops up and provides you with basic playback controls, including shuffle, loop, and view queue. On the same screen, you can select devices to cast to like the Amazon Echo. You can even view lyrics; and the display syncs up with the song, kind of like karaoke. It’s a nice addition but not as intriguing as Spotify’s Genius Lyrics feature, which includes partial interviews with artists about the current song.

By tapping the menu setting (three vertically stacked circles), you’re given a drop-down of options among which is the ability to add a song to a playlist or to your library. You can also view song credits; though, the results are disappointing. I commend Tidal for how it encourages subscribers to explore certain song contributors through its credits information, something that Amazon Music lacks. In fact, you’re really only shown songwriter credits, whereas with Tidal you’re informed of producers, composers, lyricists, featured artists, and other contributors like engineers and marketers. It would be nice to see this information bolstered, because I’m confident that more than one person worked on The Tone’s and I’s song Dance Monkey.

Want a social feed and collaborative playlists? Get Spotify instead.

Within the same menu, you may see what customers who listened to the current song have also shown interest in. This is one of my favorite features, and I wish it were more prominent. Music discovery is easily accessible with the advent of streaming services, and this is a unique way to discover new artists.

Listen to 3D audio

As of October 20, 2021, Amazon Music Unlimited supports spatial audio on iOS and Android devices with any pair of headphones. This is not the same as Apple’s Spatial Audio with head tracking, which is exclusive to Apple headsets like the AirPods Pro and AirPods (3rd generation). Amazon Music supports Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial audio formats.

This support makes sense, seeing how Amazon and Fraunhofer IIS, the company behind Bluetooth LE Audio and the new LC3 codec, partnered so Amazon can now use the MPEG-H audio decoder in its software, including the Echo Studio, which owners can use just their voice to request a song. For those unfamiliar, MPEG-H powers Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format.

Are local media files supported?

Listeners can ask Alexa to play music, skip tracks, and more.

Yes, Amazon Music Unlimited allows for access to local audio files directly through the app. This is great news for listeners like me who have a few Bandcamp downloads floating around their Android folder app. Device files are accessible and clumped together with music downloaded onto your device from Music HD.

Save data by downloading music

You’d be wise to invest in a microSD card, because lossless audio files are storage-hungry beasts. I advise against throwing caution to the wind and streaming over your cellular network. After all, streaming such large files can quickly eat away at your data plan, leaving you at a loss before the end of the month. Anyone whose smartphone lacks expandable storage should still download music, just remember space is much more finite.

How much does an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription cost?

Lily Katz / SoundGuys

Amazon Music HD is more expensive than Spotify, but offers a discounted rate for Prime members.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers a few payment tiers: individuals with a Prime membership pay USD $7.99/month (or $79 if you opt for a year-long subscription), while non-Prime members pay $9.99/month for an individual account. If you want an Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, it costs $14.99/month or $149/year and is only available to Prime members. Amazon Music Unlimited for Students is available for those currently enrolled in a degree-granting college or university at $4.99/month, but you’ll have to provide proof via a service called SheerID.

On Amazon Music Unlimited’s individual plan, you may only stream from one device at a time. In order to stream from multiple devices simultaneously, you have to get the Amazon Music Unlimited Family plan, which permits six devices at a time.

What’s the difference between Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music?

The desktop app is just as easy to use as the mobile version.

In the past, Amazon’s naming conventions for its streaming services were a bit confusing. Without rehashing everything, Amazon Music Unlimited HD and Ultra HD are Amazon’s answer to high-resolution streaming services with millions lossless songs, and its library is only expanding. These used to be called Amazon Music HD and were a separate service, but now HD and Ultra HD songs come as a part of Unlimited at no additional charge.

Amazon Music Unlimited provides 320kbps lossy streaming quality for over 50 million songs. This is the standard streaming quality used by Spotify and outperforms YouTube Music’s 256kbps quality. You’re afforded all of the same functionality of Amazon Music Unlimited HD and Ultra HD; the only difference is that streaming quality isn’t ridiculously high (Ed. note: it’s still perfectly fine, however). Prime Music’s library is much smaller and provides access to around 2 million or so songs, and the selection rarely includes trendy hits.

Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music are all ad-free streaming services.

Pricing is vastly different across Amazon Music’s services. Amazon does not make their pricing options clear and they make it very difficult to cancel your subscription, so we’ve put together a few tables to help you navigate through it all.

Amazon Music FreeAmazon Music PrimeAmazon Music Unlimited

Individual Plan (non-Prime)

Amazon Music Free

Free

Amazon Music Prime

/

Amazon Music Unlimited

$9.99/month

Prime Individual Plan

Amazon Music Free

/

Amazon Music Prime

Included with your Prime membership

Amazon Music Unlimited

$8.99/month OR $89/year

Family Plan

Amazon Music Free

/

Amazon Music Prime

/

Amazon Music Unlimited

$15.99/month OR $159/year (requires a Prime membership)

Single Device Plan

Amazon Music Free

/

Amazon Music Prime

/

Amazon Music Unlimited

$4.99/month (HD, Ultra HD, and Spatial Audio not available)

Student Plan

Amazon Music Free

/

Amazon Music Prime

/

Amazon Music Unlimited

$4.99/month

Amazon Music FreeAmazon Music PrimeAmazon Music Unlimited

Amazon Prime membership needed

Amazon Music Free

No

Amazon Music Prime

Yes

Amazon Music Unlimited

No

Functions

Amazon Music Free

– Limited skips
– Shuffle mode only
– Can only play from some stations or playlists
– No offline playback
– Alexa interaction

Amazon Music Prime

– Unlimited skips
– On-demand playback
– Offline playback
– Alexa interaction

Amazon Music Unlimited

– Unlimited skips
– On-demand playback
– Offline playback with Individual and Family Plan (not Single Device Plan)
– Alexa interaction
– Spatial Audio support

Ad-free

Amazon Music Free

No

Amazon Music Prime

Yes

Amazon Music Unlimited

Yes

Catalog

Amazon Music Free

– Some playlists
– Some stations

Amazon Music Prime

– 2 million songs
– Playlists and stations
– Personalized stations

Amazon Music Unlimited

– 75 million songs
– HD and Ultra HD tracks
– Playlists and stations
– Personalized stations

Supported devices

Amazon Music Free

– Supported Echo devices
– Some Alexa-enabled devices
– iOS
– Android
– Fire TV devices
– Fire Tablet
– Amazon Music for Web

Amazon Music Prime

– Supported Echo devices
– Some Alexa-enabled devices
– iOS
– Android
– Fire TV devices
– Fire Tablet
– Amazon Music for Web

Amazon Music Unlimited

– Supported Echo devices
– Some Alexa-enabled devices
– iOS
– Android
– Fire TV devices
– Fire Tablet
– Amazon Music for Web

Single Device Plan (no HD or Ultra HD support):
– Echo devices
– Fire TV devices

Streaming limits

Amazon Music Free

– One device at a time

Amazon Music Prime

– One device at a time

Amazon Music Unlimited

– Individual Plan: One device at time
– Family Plan: Six devices at a time
– Single Device Plan: One compatible device at a time

How does Amazon pay artists?

According to The Trichordist, Amazon Unlimited pays $0.01123 per stream. This is significantly better than payouts from Deezer and Apple.

Digital Service Provider$ Per Stream

Peloton

$0.03107

iHeartRadio

$0.01798

Amazon Music Unlimited

$0.01123

YouTube Music/Premium (formerly YouTube Red)

$0.01009

Napster/Rhapsody

$0.00916

Tidal

$0.00876

Apple Music

$0.00675

Deezer

$0.00562

Amazon Prime Music

$0.00426

KKBox

$0.00408

Spotify

$0.00348

Loen

$0.00235

Pandora

$0.00203

YouTube

$0.00154

Yandex LLC

$0.00109

Vevo

$0.00083

UMA

$0.00022

YouTube Content ID

$0.00022

Should you get Amazon Music Unlimited?

You get a live view of playback quality from both the desktop and mobile apps.

Amazon Music Unlimited is a fabulous value for anyone looking for a vast selection of high-resolution music.

At just $7.99/month for pre-existing Prime members, it’s the most affordable high-resolution streaming service available. Even for non-Prime members, Music Unlimited remains a great deal, rivaling that of Deezer and undermining Tidal’s pricing options while offering lots of HD and Ultra HD content. When you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited you’re afforded an insanely vast library of music from world-renowned bands and bar-hopping bands alike. If you don’t care much for app design and prioritize audio quality and accessibility over all else, Amazon Music Unlimited is a very difficult offer to turn down.

What are the best alternatives to Amazon Music Unlimited?

Lily Katz / SoundGuys

The highest streaming rate Qobuz offers is 24-bit/up to 192kHz.

Qobuz is a great alternative to Amazon Music Unlimited’s HD and Ultra HD libraries, especially for listeners embedded in the Sonos ecosystem. Qobuz is the first music streaming service to support 24-bit audio streaming on Sonos speakers. Qobuz’ catalog lists 60 million tracks and growing, though listeners with more niche indie music taste may find the catalog underwhelming.

Amazon Music Unlimited HD library is barren of podcasts and music videos; you’re getting exactly what the name suggests: music. This is when it may make more sense to invest in Deezer HiFi, another high-quality streaming service that has been supporting podcast playback since 2015. It streams high-resolution FLAC files and has a music library of over 53 million songs and costs just $14.99/month.

Spotify and YouTube Music both have their strength and weaknesses when it comes to UI design.

If you’re more of a music video fanatic, then YouTube Music Premium is a better investment. Its extensive music video library separates it from the rest of the streaming services, which is much needed seeing how audio quality really falls to the wayside. Relatedly, Amazon Music Unlimited is devoid of social features. Anyone who wants music to be social should invest in a Spotify subscription instead. Again, audio quality isn’t great (320kbps Ogg Vorbis), but it takes a generalist approach to music, and is therefore pretty good at nearly everything.

Related: Apple Music HD vs Spotify

Just like picking out what type of headphones to get, each streaming service has its advantages and disadvantages. However, those who appreciate a no-frills approach to high-quality music will appreciate the affordable nature of Amazon Music HD and all it has to offer.

Frequently asked questions about Amazon Music Unlimited

Sometimes our readers have further questions after reading an article, and we collect these questions and answer them here! Below are our responses to the best questions we’ve been asked.

The release of Spotify HiFi will bridge much of the gap in quality between Spotify and Amazon Music HD. The maximum audio quality Spotify HiFi will offer is CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz), which is equivalent to Amazon Music’s HD quality. However, as Amazon Music HD also offers Ultra HD quality (which is 24-bit with a sample rate ranging from 44.1kHz to 192kHz), Amazon will have the edge here—if and when Spotify ever releases this feature. As of publish, this release date is nowhere along the horizon.

Yes. Because wired audio still outperforms Bluetooth audio, you’ll want to utilize a good pair of wired headphones to get the most out of lossless audio files.

Go to your Amazon Music Settings and select Amazon Music Unlimited. Under your Subscription Renewal details, select Cancel and confirm the cancellation. This will cancel your subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Music HD. You’ll still be able to access your subscription privileges until the renewal date rolls around, then the playback options will be removed.

A single Amazon Music Unlimited HD account can only be shared if you give someone your login information, which isn’t recommended. If you want to share a collective account with multiple friends, you can subscribe to the Amazon Music Family Plan. There are two caveats: everyone must reside in the same country, and each person can only be associated with one Family Plan at a time.

Within the Amazon Music app, tap on the image at the top of the screen. Once you click “Set Up Profile,” you can adjust your profile settings.

According to an Amazon representative, devices (e.g. smartphone, laptop, TV, receiver, and even some standalone speakers) receive Amazon Music HD digital files for playback. HD audio quality (850kbps) is supported by most mobile devices and computers, while Ultra HD playback isn’t as commonly supported. Ultra HD playback will likely require an external DAC.

In short, no. When compressing an audio file into a lossy format, data points are dropped from the file. You certainly can tell the difference between a high bitrate lossless file and a low bitrate lossy file, but a lossy file is often good enough. Many people are perfectly content with the audio quality produced by a lossy AAC, which is the format you will find on Apple Music and Spotify. Particularly because lossless files take up more storage space or Internet data to store or stream, many people are fine opting for the lesser quality. Another thing that does differ between lossy files and lossless ones is that you can sometimes hear compression artifacts, which manifest as distortion, when you listen to lossy files at high volumes. If you want the opportunity to tell the difference between lossy and lossless audio files, you need to make sure the speaker or headphones you are listening with are compatible with the high quality.

Amazon Music is supported in the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Germany Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Japan, Iceland, India, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay. Amazon Music HD countries are far fewer but growing: Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States.