The best streaming service is going to depend on your needs and priorities. Spotify Premium breakdown, one thing is clear: there isn’t a clear winner. Amazon’s curated playlists are no match for Spotifyįiguring out if you prioritize streaming quality or versatility more will make it easier to decide which service to get.Īt the end of this Amazon Music HD vs. Meanwhile, Amazon has to play a hard game of catch-up if it wants to compete with Spotify. Not all discovery algorithms are created equally, and Spotify is king when it comes to dishing out good recommendations. Spotify Premium: Music discoveryīoth streaming services use an algorithm for individual music discovery, this means Amazon Music HD and Spotify Premium listeners will both be served with their share of curated playlists and suggestions. There’s a big limitation to this though: 3D audio is only available on Amazon Echo Studio devices. The end result is a realistic representation of audio that’s more immersive than what standard codecs afford. This is different from your standard surround sound, and a huge step up from traditional stereo playback: instead of listening to a limited number of channels, 3D audio uses numerous audio objects that can move around the listener within a three-dimensional space.
Podcasts are now available on both streaming servicesĪmazon has a limited library of 3D audio tracks that are mastered in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio. The conglomerate omitted the option to check related bands. Amazon Music was more limited in its results, and pulled up one result for the band Hippocampo. Spotify knew exactly what band I was referencing, and even offered a menu of options for me to choose from related artists, songs, playlists, and more. Search functionality is better with Spotify than with Amazon Music HD: I intended to search for the band Hippo Campus, and purposeful mistyped “hippocampos” into both apps’ search bars. Spotify Premium boasts better search functionality Spotify’s Home page focuses a lot more on picks tailored for your tastes, while Amazon Music HD has a You Might Like section at the top, but favors its more general curated playlists. I wouldn’t call Amazon’s ugly, though it just prioritizes other things over a slick UI.īoth mobile and desktop apps feature the standard Home pages from where you may springboard into other subsections of the apps.
Spotify’s interface is easy to navigate, and its design is more pleasing than Amazon Music HD’s. Spotify Premium: User interface and featuresīasic playback controls are available from the notification shade. Suffice to say, if you’re trying to squeeze the most out of your audiophile hardware, skip Spotify and splurge on Amazon Music HD. This is great if you have a limited data plan, because streaming high-quality audio quickly eats into your monthly data cap.
What’s more, Amazon Music HD and Spotify Premium both allow for offline playback-which means you can download albums, songs, playlists, and more. Anyone with a vast music library saved directly to their phone’s storage will appreciate this feature on either application. Streaming Serviceīoth services support local media files. Little is known about the new tier except that it will offer CD-quality lossless audio, and likely won’t offer any higher quality audio. On February 22, 2021, Spotify announced Spotify HiFi, a lossless audio streaming tier that’s set to level the playing field against services like Deezer, Tidal HiFi, Qobuz, and Amazon Music HD. Other settings are Low (24kbps), Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps), and Automatic (adjusts depending on network connection).
Spotify Premium supports the compressed, lossy Ogg Vorbis audio format and streams at 320kbps when at the Very High setting. Amazon Ultra HD tracks top out at an impressive rate of 24bit/192kHz, but usually devices require the assistance of an external DAC. Amazon Music HD tracks stream up to 850kbps, and according to an Amazon representative, most devices receive Amazon Music HD files for playback. Amazon Music HD affords Ultra HD, and some devices require a DAC for optimal playback.Īmazon Music HD isn’t playing around: it’s a top-tier service that supports lossless FLAC audio.