The HiFi Bear - Amazon Music: Review

Interesting post and write up.
Like the stye of the information and your conclusion seemed fair.

Well done sir

How about a contrary opinion? 😂

I must admit I found the review a bit confusing and inconsistent at times.

Towards the end the idea that you'd been trying to use CD quality 16/44 all the time for comparisons was introduced....what? That's the first time that was mentioned, I think?
And as you mentioned yourself,it doesn't really make sense as Amazon Music provides higher rez in the price. It's a selectable choice for playback.

You came across as a bit of an old fart at other times, uncomfortable with new things. Puttering around in dusty old charity shops and used LP bins, and waiting for albums to arrive in the post, rather than actually listening to music when you wanted to.

Often you seemed to think the streaming sounded better, but, nah, you'd rather use the hard copy anyway.

You never really addressed the exploratory power of the streaming services; discovering new music either by the service's recommendations or by random association with links from music already played.
This is a fabulous and revelatory thing for many music lovers.



My own experience with Amazon Music has been very different.

I've tried Amazon Music a couple of times, and both times found the user interface for searching and playing music very poor compared to other services like Qobuz or Tidal. It was incredibly frustrating and annoying and totally ruled it out for me.

One function I frequently wanted required 5 individual steps with Amazon compared to 1 or 2 with other services. Incredibly annoying after a while.
Amazon Music didn't remember previously used preferences for search result display, other services did.
Grrrr .....

I'd rate Amazon Music as easily the worst of the streaming services in terms of its user interface. Personally, it would be my last choice, if nothing else was available.
I'd probably rather have a CD collection. 😂

But that's my review, not yours.

I'll get my coat.

Convenience and instant gratification sounds great - until you realise what the unintended consequences are.

I love walking up to the record shop or the charity shops and sorting through the albums to find things I want that I haven't got, or taking a punt on something that looks interesting. Getting it back home, sticking it on and giving my verdict.

And while I'm there having a chat with the owner and the other punters.

I'm old enough - and so are you Jerry - to recall the world before the big supermarkets and the retail parks, when you went to the greengrocer, then the butcher, the the cake shop, and they were all privately owned and you got personal service from someone you knew, and who knew you. And maybe a chat about the football, or the cricket, or what was happening in the news.

Is life really better with all that gone? Sure now it's cheaper and quicker providing you don't mind being served by some surly teenager who's only interested in upselling you the loyalty card.

It's the intangibles that matter the most but the baby has gone out with the bathwater.

So what that you can access 'a million tracks.' If I want a particular album I can order it, I still have access to it, it's just not instant. And I don't need to keep paying rent for it in perpetuity. And one day when you want to listen to it and it's not there anymore because the rights owner didn't renew the licence, what do you do then?

Like renting a house where you're happy and one day the landlord says 'Sorry mate I've got to give you notice.' Its never better to rent.

Sorry Oli - I should have said - I enjoyed reading your article.

Not sure what this obscure music you're listening to is though...you want to put some Zappa on mate

Ah, but I'm a shy, introverted loner.
The last thing I want is a nice cosy chat with the f#####g greengrocer.
Just give me the veg without the chat, you t#sser.

And if the streaming service goes kaput?
Oh horror.
That's just like swapping to a different service and starting afresh. I've done that a lot as I've tried most of the streaming services.
And it's really great.
I start out anew discovering new music, using the fabulous exploratory resources that these services provide.
And it's dead easy to find old favourites.
Bring it on!!

No, I'm actually very grateful for the feedback. Your points regarding what was missing from the review are spot on.

I have taken note.

Oli >>That's modern day programmers for you. None of them can do a good GUI if you put a gun to their heads.<<

It sounds like perhaps you haven't experienced Qobuz' or Tidal's or, best of all, Spotify's own UI?

They are quite impressive.
And they really show up Amazon Music for a pile of sh#te, unfortunately.
Your review readers need to know that.
And you need to experience it to see for yourself and to determine your own opinion.

I would guess that most folks use the services' own UIs.

I have used Spotify - only at someone else's place where they hand me an i-pad thingy and asked me to select something.

Anytime that happens my mind goes blank. So you can type in anything and it finds it but what do you type in?

Or you can scroll down. It starts with 'A' which is logical, but because there's so much on there you can be scrolling down through 'A' for the rest of the morning.

Now at home if I want music but nothing specific I just go over to the alcove with all my music in and browse along the shelve. I don't have to scroll through a load of stuff I'm not interested in because this is my collection and so I like all of it.

Anytime I get handed that i-pad you know what I put on? AC-DC because it's near the start and I know I like it.

Of course in my collection it's the best mastering because I made that choice, on Spotify it's whatever they choose to give you. And it's not even lossless.

I'm sorry but streaming sucks. Big time. In lots of ways.

Glad it's not just me! I do read comments from others who have become disillusioned with it. Mostly because it's too easy to chop and change and they never sit and listen to a full album like they used to - and they miss that.

Perhaps you do get used to it after a while? They say that about buggery.


I don't know. And honestly, I'm not really interested in finding out.

So some people like something and others don't.
Well, that's never happened before.

Yes, before I took up streaming for myself I tried using it at other people's places, and it sucked big time for the reasons mentioned and others.

But once I was finally nagged into trying it at home (it turned out to be trivial to start streaming from my phone, I had no idea) suddenly it all made sense and I'm a fully paid up convert to rented music.

Rented music suits my listening style anyway. I had a wall full of CDs most of which I hadn't played for years.
Most albums I now play I didn't know about a fortnight before.

Yup.
For me that's the major drawback of the current streaming model.
I'd happily pay 50% more for my rented music if that went to the musicians and not into the pockets of the industry oligarchs.

As a further aside, I did send a couple of payments to musician performers I enjoyed, sort of their go fund me accounts.

I'm not sure what response I was expecting, certainly not a fanfare of trumpets and a tickertape parade.
But I wasn't expecting to be totally ignored, either, but that's what happened.
I didn't do it again.

I've since learned about Patreon, a nicely positive environment, and I've signed up there.

Buying records from the shop in either vinyl or CD was a very frustrating thing for me . I liked large sections of music like Afro Beat , Salsa , Bossa Nova , Bhangra and many more that most shops had never heard of let alone stocked . Then you went to a specialist shop and doubled the price . So then I discovered the delights of Second Spin , Amazon and eBay to sell a huge selection of used Cd,s in every genre . So bought about 18 to 20 a month and some times more . Then came LMS and ripping all my music in Flac to a HD and playing this via players . Material Skin GUI appeared and playing what I wanted became so much easier . My own experience from early on was that most Albums had three perhaps four tracks that were great then lots of filler . Now I could hit the random button and I had a huge jukebox that played my music in different sequences . This is how I listen still . I have yet found any streaming service that gets the idea of true random Sinartravthen Femi Kuti just does not happen and they all seem to take a root from the first track played and follow that genre not what I want . I want true random and constant surprise if something comes on and I do not want to hear it right then then that is what the skip button is for .

I think what Andrew bencat wants is an app that can read his mind.
That might take a little longer to become available.

Most of the current streaming services really are very good and would meet most people's needs.

This is the trouble with so called AI

Same on Amazon. You buy a hoover and then next day 'Recommended For You' is more hoovers.

Eh? I just bought a hoover - surely it can work out that the last thing I will be interested in buying the very next day is another one?

Can it not think 'This bloke just bought a hoover, must be interested in a clean house', and then offer other cleaning products? Really how hard would that be?

But no. Skynet and The Matrix are still a long way off it seems.