Viva la resolution!

As the arrival of another big name into lossless and hi-res on-demand streaming alters the dynamic of the market once again, Ed Selley judges the runners and riders

- Ed Selley

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THE WORLD OF on-demand music streaming can be a sightly deceptive one. Viewed with a disinterested eye, things appear to change slowly, at all. We've had on-demand music for over a decade now, initially as a compressed-only service, then with lossless, followed by hi-res options. Behind the scenes, though, the dynamics of what's on offer and why is fascinating as providers respond and tweak their services to counter what their rivals are up to.

This applies with particular significance to the last year. The early part of 2021 was dominated by the news that lossless Spotify - a service that hasn't featured in recent round ups because it only offers a lossy tier - was due before the end of the year. Here we are in early 2022, though, with no sign of this promised addition. In some ways, Spotify's announcement wasn't the big news, it was the response it provoked. Apple Music, which had been exclusively lossy up to this point, joined Amazon in offering not just lossless but hi-res too.

Neither was this the only change to all the participating services.

Primephonic, which participated in our last two round-ups, was purchased by Apple and its classical music search and metadata functionality has been incorporated into Apple's wider offering. Tidal, meanwhile, has introduced a lossless-only HiFi tier that sees it ready to take on lossless Spotify as and when it makes an appearance. As such, we'll be looking at our six challengers and, while sound quality remains the main concern, we'll also be taking into account which balances value and features best to come out on top and offer the ultimate all-around option.

Amazon

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