Amazon “Ultra Hd” Tunes
Amazon’s streaming service goes all in on “Ultra HD” in a deal with UMG and Warner to remaster big names to 192kHz and mix 3D editions.
5 October 2020
Amazon Music announces a partnership with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to remaster thousands of songs and albums to “Ultra High Definition”, upping the audio quality of these songs to the highest available on their platform. For the first time, fans will be able to stream music from artists across a broad range of genres and eras, with all of the depth, vibrancy, and emotion from their original recordings, launching exclusively on Amazon Music HD.
In addition, music from artists including Eagles, Elton John, Linkin Park, Tom Petty, Ariana Grande, Jon Pardi, Shawn Mendes, Lady Gaga, Lil Tecca, Selena Gomez, Post Malone and more has been remixed in 3D Audio formats including Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA, offering a truly immersive listening experience for customers.
“We launched Amazon Music HD last year with a promise to always offer our customers the best quality recording available for streaming,” said Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music. “With this partnership, we are building upon that promise by improving existing recordings to make the listening experience even better, and preserving artistic legacy for future generations. We are thrilled to have the support from Universal Music and Warner Music to deliver key recordings from their catalogs, exclusively for Amazon Music customers. We’ll continue to work with more labels to improve the digital quality of even more audio recordings, and provide customers with all of the emotion, power, clarity, and nuance of original recordings across all genres.”
With Amazon Music HD, customers can already stream 5 million songs in “Ultra HD” (better than CD quality), with a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate up to 192 kHz. Customers can also stream more than 60 million lossless High Definition songs, with a bit depth of 16 bits and a sample rate of 44.1kHz (CD quality), and a growing catalog of 3D Audio.
Amazon is now making the biggest catalog of “Ultra HD” music even bigger, revealing nuances that were once flattened in files compressed for digital streaming or CD manufacturing. All titles resulting from this “Ultra HD” music partnership will be delivered in 24 bit and 96 kHz or 192 kHz.
In addition to “Ultra HD” remasters, select albums and songs will be remixed in 3D Audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA. Listeners will be able to stream these 3D mixes when listening through Amazon Music HD on Amazon’s hi-fi smart speaker, Echo Studio.
Gregory Porter’s newest album ALL RISE, available from Blue Note Records, was released August 28 exclusively on Amazon Music HD in “Ultra HD” and 3D/Dolby Atmos.
“I’m excited for everyone to hear my new album ALL RISE in immersive,” said Porter, a two-time Grammy winner for Best Jazz Vocal Album. “When I first heard my songs mixed in Dolby Atmos, I was amazed by the way it sounded – almost like being back in the studio! I’m looking forward to sharing my music in this new way.”
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