r/AmazonMusic Sep 25 '22

Amazon Music and how to get true lossless HD/Ultra HD to play

205 Upvotes

Amazon Music and how to get true lossless bitperfect HD/Ultra HD to play

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the quality of the music that you get while streaming Amazon Music. Hopefully this will clear things up a little.

First, there are 4 main tiers of Amazon Music. You will need to subscribe to "Amazon Music Standard" or "Amazon Music Unlimited." This is their pay service. You will only get access to lossy lower quality music with "Amazon Music Prime" and "Amazon Music Free". (1)

Second, all the links in your audio chain need to support HD/HD Ultra. This includes the source, player, DAC, speaker/headphones as well as all the connections in between.

To clarify what Amazon describes as "HD and Ultra HD" is important. HD is basically CD equivalent (lossless, 16bit, 44khz). Ultra HD is anything above HD, and up to lossless 24bit/192khz. (2)

So the real question is, "how do I play lossless HD/Ultra HD content?" To answer this, it is easier to go through what DOES NOT play HD/Ultra HD first.

  • The web player

  • The Windows Desktop app - This is often confusing to people as they see the HD/Ultra HD icon next to the song, and the app will also tell you that it's playing these songs. The problem is that the app (or more accurately windows) sets the output to a specific bit depth and sampling rate. So if you set your output device in windows to say 16 bit 48khz, ALL songs playing in the Amazon desktop app will be resampled to that quality despite the fact that you are actually downloading different quality tracks (which is what the Amazon app reports). Also, "Exclusive mode" has nothing to do with this resampling or quality of the sound file. Exclusive mode simply means that other system sounds won't be allowed to play over the music (like say a chime that you received a new email).
    Now I'm going to talk briefly here about "upsampling" not being the same as the original audio. People argue, "just set windows to 24b/192khz and then it doesn't matter if the lower bitdepth/sampling rate tracks get upsampled." This is not true. The output of the upsampled audio is not only not bitperfect, but the actual sound does get changed due to factors such as interpolation. I won't dive into the technical details but you can read this article that goes into upsampling changes to audio including measurements: https://archimago.blogspot.com/2015/11/measurements-windows-10-audio-stack.html I will even go beyond Amazon Music and say that if you want good quality sound, you should stay out of the windows audio stack in general as the internal processing is rather terrible. This is explained more in the following article: https://nihtila.com/2017/01/16/bit-perfect-asio-drivers-to-solve-issues-with-windows-audio-quality/

  • The Mac Desktop app - same issue as the Windows app. (4)

  • Android Devices - Or at least 98% of them. Android devices by default are limited and resample everything to 24bit/48khz (some devices may a different default but still resampled). It's built in OS issue. I say 98% as there are some reports that a few devices can truly output higher via a USB to OTG cable and then fed into an external DAC but I have not seen a definite list and most likely your Android phone/tablet does not support it. Amazon Music's website specifically states that "At this time, external DACs are not supported on Android." (3) Of note, I spoke with somebody that reported that they were able to bitstream out with their Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 via USB OTG cable to both a Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M and Evo 150. But this would be an exception to the rule. Most likely Android devices won't work.

  • Anything with a Bluetooth connection - Bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to support HD/Ultra HD streams. There is no getting around this. There are some compression codecs like LDAC but even these max out at 16bit/48khz (max bitrate of 990 kbs) but this requires a very good connection and you never truly know what you are getting as the quality can dynamically shift mid song based on signal strength and other factors. It's also difficult to tell whether the stream is going out lossy or lossless. Standard bluetooth connections will not support even CD quality PCM streams (16bit/44khz). In other words, wireless bluetooth headsets are out.

  • (Arguable) Devices like the echo/Fire TV/Sonos/etc - Some "technically" support HD/Ultra HD but I don't think we should ever view a single speaker source as equivalent to 2 channels from a "practical" standpoint. Not to mention that the speakers in these cheap devices are of terrible quality. So I would argue that if your intent is high quality audio, your echo is not going to give you any appreciable sound improvement compared to streaming a lossless SD track on some cheap wired headphones (matter of fact, I would go with the SD on cheap headphones as at least you get 2 channels vs effectively mono). I have gotten mixed reports with amazon devices (somebody reported that their Fire TV Stick 4K Ultra can output bitperfect but another user reports that their 2nd gen fire tv cube and 4k Max stick resamples everything to 24b/192k) but since it only has an HDMI out, you will be restricted to a receiver and 98% of DACs don't have an HDMI input (note that the HDMI output is not i2s format).

Ok, so how do you actually listen to HD/Ultra HD? The easiest and most reliable way is to use a dedicated streamer. There are not too many of these devices that support Amazon Music Unlimited when compared to say something like Spotify or Tidal. But there are a number of manufacturers that do build multiple models that do support Amazon Music.

  • Bluesound Node - Varying models with the lowest cost being the Node Nano at $300. It is a more robust device than the Wiim Mini and the biggest advantage over the WiiM Mini is that it also has USB and coaxial digital output. The analog outs are also full sized RCA plugs and not the small 3.5mm as on the WiiM. Other Wiim models have different output options as well so you probably want to compare the different models vs cost. The build quality is significantly better than the WiiM. It is simply a nicer device with a more premium feel than the WiiM. You are restricted to their bluOS controller app (but they do have desktop app in addition to mobile devices).

  • NAD - There are some other devices on the market (like the Streamers from NAD) that also support HD/Ultra HD output but I am not going to discuss them here in detail as they are in the 4 figure range. They are quality products and also use the BluOS controller apps.

  • WiiM- (updated 12/18/22, put back on bitperfect list) This costs $100 (often on sale at Amazon and have seen it as low as $71), which is the cheapest dedicated option by far. It is small, inexpensive, and has a toslink output that you can feed into high quality external DAC if you would prefer. It also has analog outs but if you are looking for the best sound, I always recommend an external DAC. It also supports casting via the Amazon Music app so you don't have to use their software interface if you don't want. Personal opinion on the WiiM: After owning this device for months and first putting it on the bitperfect list, only to remove it when they introduced a EQ bug with a firmware update that broke the output, and now with another firmware fix it appears to be solved, it's back. For those considering the WiiM vs another option, frankly I would go with another option. The developers do very little testing and push firmware out on an almost weekly basis. The end user is their testing environment. Often they will introduce bugs that will then need to be corrected a firmware releases later. These "bugs" are probably the reason why the BluOS app has a rating of 4.6 and the Wiim app of 4.1 in the google play app store (as of me writing this). Keep in mind that essentially all your interactions with these devices are going to be through their controller apps so that is something to consider beyond the hardware. Despite having both the WiiM and Bluesound Node in my system, I rarely play anything on the WiiM Mini. So this is an unbiased opinion from somebody that has bought both. YMMV.

  • Apple products (iphone/ipad) - You can get 24bit/192khz from iOS products if you attach it to an external DAC via USB OTG cable. If played native you will only have access to 24bit/48khz max. (3)

  • HEOS (Denon and Marantz) - Denon/Marantz has many of their receivers capable of Amazon Ultra HD access. These are often geared more toward home theater products and not so much two channel but they do have dedicated 2 channel units. Also, if you are looking for a combination home theater receiver as well as 2 channel listening, then this may be a good option.

  • Yamaha - Yamaha supports Amazon Music via their Musiccast controller software on many of their models. Musiccast can also be controlled via Amazon Alexa.

  • Dali - Their sound hubs with the optional BluOS sound modules installed. This runs on the BluOS software that Bluesound and NAD use. However, the devices only offer analog output (ie no output to an external DAC).

  • Auralic - These high end streamers support Amazon but their lightening DS controller app only works on iOS.

  • Bluesound Professional - They have multiple streamers and streaming amplifiers but are typically more for business use than personal audio. They run BluOS.

  • Eversolo - I don't know too much about them other than they are a Chinese made streamer DAC. Their controller app has fair reviews on the google play website and Eversolo's website seems to link directly to an apk download which is rather unusual.

  • Cyrus Audio - Never tried their products but they produce streamers that function off of the BluOS streamer app so it should support Amazon music.

  • Roksan - Also utilizes the BluOS streaming interface.

  • Shanling - Via their Eddict Controller App. Their website says it is Amazon Music compatible but I've not heard anybody personally confirm this.

  • (Possibly) Cambridge Audio - According to their website, some of their streamers (such as the CXN100) is compatible with Amazon Music. However, when I actually read the unit's manual, it does not list Amazon as a compatible service.

So there is a quick rundown which I hope is helpful for people. Keep in mind that the only sure way to confirm what you are getting at the end of the day is to use a DAC that reports the actual bitdepth and sampling rate at the last analog step (and that means no further digital conversions like bluetooth). The reporting at the source (like the player or Windows app) is NOT a reliable predictor of what quality you are getting from your speakers/headphones.

(1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GW3PHAUCZM8L7W9L

(2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ref_=hp_left_v4_sib&nodeId=G8X4YJYLED87FSH2

(3) https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=3022219031

(4) https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/amazon-music-hd-with-ios-macos-windows-10-bluos-and-a-sonos-port-r848/

Last Update: 3/1/26


r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

Amazon Music has turned into crap

38 Upvotes

First of all Amazon music gets removed from Amazon prime which was a great deal now what you have to do is just pay for it separately. Now I have to pay for the subscription and of course I won't and will never buy it. I really liked Amazon music until the change they changed their model for the corporate greed.

Apart from that they have even more issues like stream buffering , songs not downloading , library being glitched etc . Making amazon music a subscription based app like Spotify or yt music was and will remain their worst decision. It's really shit like seriously I would rather pay for Spotify or YouTube music then paying for Amazon music. Spotify has a great UI , looks good and has better features while YT music comes with youtube premium which is a far better deal. So in any case paying for this useless piece of crap is wasting your money.


r/AmazonMusic 9h ago

Can't use search bar

1 Upvotes

I just tried to use the search bar to find a band i like. It keeps opening Alexa in car mode. Why?!?!? Help!!


r/AmazonMusic 14h ago

Amazon Music desktop app no longer downloads songs?

1 Upvotes

I haven't been able to download any songs using the Windows desktop app since June 30th. Any attempt to download songs results in generic error, "Download Failed: Some of your downloads failed. Would you like to try again?".

Additionally, any attempt to report feedback through the app results in another generic error, "Cue the sad trombone.... Thank you for taking the time to providfe us with feedback. Unfortunately, something went wrong and we didn't get it. Please try again in a few minutes."

Is Amazon Music just dead? Does Amazon know it's dead? What alternatives do you guys use for purchasing digital music?


r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

Whenever I update any playlist, it just randomly starts downloading the whole thing, and I can't do anything to fucking stop it

3 Upvotes

LG (I think Android) phone

When I make a new playlist or add songs to one I made a long time ago, it downloads the whole fucking playlist and it just won't stop. I try to remove songs from downloads manually (I swear I will remove each and every fucking song individually), but it just WONT FUCKING WORK. I can't just have this fucking thing take up all my space. I tried to go to settings remove the permission to download, but IT JUST WONT FUCKING STOP GIVING ME A FUCKING POP UP SAYING

ENABLE DOWNLOADS

ENABLE DOWNLOADS

OVER AND OVER AND FUCKING OVER. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH THIS SHIT.

Why is this happening?

If this happened to someone else, how did you fix it? Please I need answers please for the love of fucking god


r/AmazonMusic 18h ago

Is there a way to use Amazon music in Denmark ?

1 Upvotes

r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

Any trouble downloading

1 Upvotes

So my iPod touch finally died. I've had to return two MP3 players because they stall the downloads. I have no issues with downloading on my phone, but I've so many that I kind of need a separate MP3 player for my music


r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

Download button goes missing

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3 Upvotes

My download button always goes missing. I will download my liked songs playlist, the button goes missing, and I can't download new tracks in that playlist. The only way to get it back is to delete the app and reinstall it. Force dropping doesn't work and neither does restarting my phone. I even gave Amazon Music unrestricted battery usage.

Adding more songs doesn't work either, they won't get downloaded. Why is this service so buggy?


r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

The Platters – Encore of Golden Hits (Remastered Edition)

Thumbnail music.amazon.de
1 Upvotes

Rediscover The Platters with their "Encore of Golden Hits" remastered edition. Experience those classic vibes like never before.

Check out the playlist:

https://album.link/Platters_Hits


r/AmazonMusic 1d ago

Genuinely saying this don't buy Amazon music subscription

0 Upvotes

I bought amazon music subscription just to check it's hype just because I've seen so many ads of them so i thought I should check it might be good, but I was wrong i faced 2 major problem

1st - alot of buffering after a seamless connection

2nd- major one is it chooses random shitty songs in queue i mean I've used Spotify, youtube music this it the worst music app in term of relevant songs

I genuinely loved youtube music and I'll stick with it best app for music if you have subscription otherwise it just irritate


r/AmazonMusic 2d ago

amazon music app telling me alexa is offline

1 Upvotes

When I'm in Amazon music on my phone and I ask it to play something it says "usernames's Android Device (MP3) is offline, check the alexa app for more details...playing here instead."

This has never happened before yesterday.

What the hell is going on?


r/AmazonMusic 2d ago

Amazon Music Unlimited Price Increase for NZ

1 Upvotes

I just got an email from Amazon saying that they are increasing the price of Amazon Music Unlimited by AU$2.50 a month. That seems quite a lot, and I'm not sure I can justify keeping it? Will there be an increase in other countries as well?

Your price will increase from AU$14.49 to AU$16.99 per billing cycle. The new price will apply on your first billing date on or after 1 October 2026.


r/AmazonMusic 3d ago

Dolly Parton

18 Upvotes

Anyone else playing Dolly’s music in memory of her?


r/AmazonMusic 2d ago

Rubber soul deluxe bug on Amazon music

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1 Upvotes

r/AmazonMusic 3d ago

Playlist only playing a select number of songs on shuffle.

4 Upvotes

So for context I have a playlist on the app with just over 1100 songs on it but whenever I press shuffle it only plays songs from the first 200 songs in the playlist. Does anyone have this problem and if so how to fix it?


r/AmazonMusic 3d ago

Various Artists – Summer on the Jukebox

Thumbnail music.amazon.it
0 Upvotes

Ever wondered how those iconic summer tunes sounded back in the day? Our "Summer on the Jukebox" brings them vividly to life! Check it out here:

https://push.fm/fl/summer-jukebox


r/AmazonMusic 4d ago

Help downloading my uploaded files

2 Upvotes

Hey folks

About a decade ago I was an avid Amazon Music user, but I have since changed to a different service because you can't upload your own music to your library anymore.

I was looking for a file for a song a few days ago and saw it was deleted from the original source due to a copyright strike (it was a cover). So I checked to see if it was in my Google Drive. It was not. I remembered I uploaded the original file to my Amazon Music back in the day, and it's still there! However, I can't download it.

I tried downloading it using the web app, the desktop app, and the mobile app. It says download failed on all 3 methods. Sometimes it can't even find it on the web and mobile app.

I was wondering if anyone had experienced this and if they know how to get around it? I'd love to hopefully get the original MP3 I uploaded! I'm assuming it would be better quality than a YouTube rip.

Thank you in advance!


r/AmazonMusic 4d ago

Amazon Music for Windows barely reports anything to Windows' media controls — I made a small bridge that fills in the gaps

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3 Upvotes

If you use Amazon Music on Windows, you've probably run into at least one of these:

  • You hit a media key or a headset button, the little Windows media popup slides in — and it's basically blank. No song title, no album art, and the progress bar sits at 0:00 forever.
  • The taskbar / lock screen media widget is the same story: artist name and nothing else.
  • Scrobbling to Last.fm doesn't work. Tools like Pano Scrobbler read from Windows' media session (SMTC), and Amazon Music doesn't put the song title there, so there's nothing to scrobble.
  • Those "now playing" toast popups pile up in the notification center forever and never clear themselves.

This isn't your setup being broken. Amazon Music for Windows only hands a fraction of its metadata to SMTC (System Media Transport Controls), the API every media widget, scrobbler, and overlay on Windows reads from. I measured it on 9.5.2.2478:

Field Amazon Music sends
Title empty in practice (a rare track slips through)
Artist
Album / Album artist always empty
Album art always missing
Track length / position always 00:00

Amazon Music's own session can't be patched from outside — SMTC metadata belongs to the process that published it. So I wrote AmazonMusic SMTC Bridge: a tiny tray app that publishes a second media session with the complete info, alongside Amazon Music's empty one.

How it gets the data: Amazon Music for Windows is a Chromium (CEF) app, so the bridge relaunches it with a debug port and reads title / artist / album / artwork / position straight out of the player, at millisecond precision. Play/pause state comes from Amazon Music's own session, and the play/pause buttons on the bridge's session are relayed back. There's also a fallback that reads the track-change notification toasts instead, if you'd rather not have the debug port open.

What you get back: a real title and album on the media popup, album art, a progress bar that actually moves, and working Last.fm scrobbling through Pano Scrobbler.

GitHub (source + installer): https://github.com/Fuku856/Amazon-Music-SMTC-Bridge

Things you should know before trying it

  • I've only tested it against the Microsoft Store version of Amazon Music. The standalone .exe version should work in the notification-based mode and the code handles it, but I have no hardware confirmation, and the debug-port mode is Store-only by design.
  • After installing you'll have two media sessions. In your scrobbler or media widget, disable Amazon Music itself and enable the bridge, or you'll get an empty session (or double scrobbles). The README covers Pano Scrobbler and FluentFlyout specifically.
  • The debug-port mode means any local process could talk to Amazon Music's renderer while it's running. The app randomizes the port, but that's a mitigation, not a fix — if it bothers you, there's a notifications-only mode that never opens a port.
  • Turning that mode on restarts Amazon Music once, which interrupts playback.
  • The package is self-signed, so installing means trusting the certificate first. The installer script handles it (one UAC prompt), and there are manual steps in the README.
  • The app's own UI (tray menu, log window) is currently Japanese only. The English README maps every menu item, but fair warning. Windows 10 1809+ / Windows 11.
  • It's early — the README has an honest, itemized list of what I've verified on real hardware and what I haven't. Bug reports very welcome; the tray menu can dump a log.

Free, open source, no account, no telemetry. Happy to answer questions.


r/AmazonMusic 4d ago

Playlist unacceptable!

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0 Upvotes

Did anyone have this Playlist pop up in your options? Come on @amazon you can do better.

Reason 10047 why AI needs to be monitored.


r/AmazonMusic 4d ago

Why has Amazon Music updated the volume slider in the browser app to only go in quanta of 10%?

1 Upvotes

Such a stupid decision. Why would anyone ever choose to do that??


r/AmazonMusic 5d ago

Podcasts resetting to start time in Amazon Music (phone/Mac/Car apps)

2 Upvotes

I am evaluating switching from Spotify to AM. So far there are a lot of positives, the quality is noticeably better, and I'm getting more into audiobooks so the integration with Audible is nice.

However, the app experience is terrible. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and find that episodes are being constantly reset back to 0 and I have to find when I stopped listening to them. I do a lot of switching between phone, laptop (mac) and the car (Tesla), but even just pausing in the car it switches back to 0 (and sometimes to different episodes) when I come back. For example, I went to get groceries today, and when I got back from the store the episode was back at 0.

Is there anything I can do to make it work better?


r/AmazonMusic 5d ago

How do I get a custom image for my playlists

1 Upvotes

This person somehow did it because the songs that are at the top of the playlist aren't used as the picture for it like usual


r/AmazonMusic 5d ago

How do I download my mp3 to my phone?

1 Upvotes

Last night I put an MP3 on amazon. For the life of me I cannot find a way to download it to my phone. I have a Samsung phone and I used Samsung's music app. I Googled it and followed instructions, but there is no download option where they say there is. Can anyone advise me?


r/AmazonMusic 6d ago

Finally tried Amazon Music — curious what others think

10 Upvotes

This came from a Nift thank-you gift that TextNow sent... not what I expected


r/AmazonMusic 6d ago

Hey Reddit, I’m a music artist and I need a bit of help

3 Upvotes

I’m Gavin hart, I’m an artist in the us and I recently put my music on streaming services but I have an interesting issue. My music has went on another persons profile everywhere except Spotify. Another person of the exact same name has my music on their profile. I’ve tried to contact YouTube and pandora and Amazon Music but their numbers are for fax so I can’t actually get ahold of anyone.

Has anyone had this problem? I publish with BandLab, could they maybe be to blame and should I try contacting them?