Amazon's high-fidelity streaming service, Amazon Music HD, is now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost, the company tells Billboard. Amazon Music HD previously cost $14.99 a month ($12.99 for Prime members) while Amazon Music Unlimited, its most popular service option, is $9.99 a month ($7.99 for Prime members).
The move is a first in the music industry, where high-fidelity streaming options routinely cost $19.99 a month before Amazon Music HD arrived in September 2019, forcing competitors like Deezer and Qobuz to lower the price of their high-fidelity plans to $14.99. (Tidal still selling its high-fidelity streaming tier for $19.99 a month). Now Amazon is leading the way once again, effectively cutting the price of high-fidelity music in half within two years.
“It's something we've all we've been wanting to do for a long time,” says Amazon Music vp Steve Boom. “When we launched, we already broke the mold by taking a service that had been $19.99 -- and really just for the audiophile at that price point -- and brought it down to something that was much more mass-market at $14.99.”
Amazon’s success with its HD service, which has grown 100% year-over-year, has pushed Spotify to announce a Hi-Fi tier as well, with rumors of an Apple Music Hi-Fi plan possibly also priced at $9.99 a month.
For years, the music industry was focused on using high-fidelity audio streaming as a means to raise the average revenue per user with higher-priced subscriptions. That would mean bigger payouts for rights holders and the streaming services. But with Amazon, Spotify, and Apple all getting in on the high-fidelity push, the labels have become more amenable to lowering the price of high-fidelity tiers in the hopes of increasing the overall number of subscribers across the industry.
“The other services are coming around to the fact that this is really important.” Boom says. “And that momentum in the marketplace just changed the nature of the conversations about how this content should be made accessible to everybody and how it should be licensed.”
Boom continues, “The labels have been extremely supportive of us in our efforts to trailblaze with HD audio. This is going to create more growth in the marketplace. And we're putting the focus on the quality of the sound as opposed to just the revenue.”
Amazon Music HD has more than 70 million lossless CD-quality songs in HD (16-bit / 44.1 kHz) and over 7 million “Ultra HD” songs (24-bit / 48kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz), which are effectively studio masters. Subscribers to Amazon Music Unlimited in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain will be able to upgrade to Amazon Music HD on both individual and family plans for free (student plans are not included and will not have HD music available). Current Amazon Music HD subscribers will now be charged $5 less a month on their future billing cycles.
Chris Brown has been ordered to pay close to $13 million in damages after a widely watched civil lawsuit tied to a brutal dog attack at his California residence. A Los Angeles jury ruled that the American singer and his company, Black Pyramid LLC, were negligent after his 200 pound Caucasian shepherd allegedly attacked his housekeeper, Maria Avila. According to Billboard, the decision concludes a hard fought two week trial centered on the devastating incident that took place in 2020.
The case focused on a terrifying incident at Brown's home in Tarzana, where the dog, Hades, reportedly mauled Avila as she was taking out the household trash. The attack left her with permanent facial injuries, serious nerve damage, and partial vision loss. During the trial, jurors heard testimony claiming Brown drove away from the property shortly after the attack instead of helping Avila or contacting emergency responders. Brown later admitted he left because his manager advised him to do so, explaining that he panicked after seeing the amount of blood and wanted to avoid attracting media attention.
Although Brown accepted a measure of responsibility before the trial began, his legal team challenged how severe Avila's injuries were and argued that she shared some of the blame. Brown said he had warned employees that the guard dogs were extremely dangerous, but both Avila and her sister rejected that claim, saying no such warning was ever communicated because of a language barrier. Avila also told the court that the lasting scars on her arm and the emotional trauma she continues to experience have made it impossible for her to return to work.
Billboard also reported that the jury awarded an additional $885,000 to Avila's sister, Patricia, who witnessed the attack, as well as $50,000 to Maria's husband, Oscar Olivo. Attorneys representing the family said they were grateful for the outcome, describing the verdict as long awaited justice after five years of legal proceedings. The ruling comes as Brown remains on a major North American tour and ahead of a separate criminal trial he is expected to face in the United Kingdom later this year over an alleged nightclub incident.
