Amazon HD Lower Price

Apple has about 200 billion dollars in spare cash laying around. Google (Alphabet) 135 billion. 

How much does Qobuz have? 

Prices will remain punishingly low. They'll bleed Qobuz for a while, then someone will will acquire them in a fire sale, mostly to get their subscribers, and possibly a few of their coders. Ditto Tidal. Even Spotify. Even if they could come up with some new feature, the big dogs could just copy it. I don't see a new business model for them either. All they can do is pray to sell to the highest bidder.

See the fact, and start transitioning now. True, there are reasons to distrust any or all of, Apple, Amazon, Google. I see Google as the lesser of the evils, and I see them as having the best AI prowess, but they haven't announced a hi-fi tier for Google Play music yet, though I think they have to.

Apple did more than just enter the streaming music market. They are introducing, in June, a disruptive technology called 'Spatial Audio' in addition to 'lossless' for no extra charge. This is for headphone/earbud users and the effect is amazing. It can only be enjoyed using their own proprietary chip set that encodes the Dolby Atmos signal.

I have listened to music through my Apple Airpods and I can tell you the effect is like nothing I ever heard. You know how headphones put the music inside your head? Spatial audio takes the music outside your head. The lead singer is now standing out in front of you. The location of other band members is clearly defined around you. Sound is NOT coming out of the head phones instead it's coming from it's recorded location. Holographic imaging on steroids. The effect is completely different and it's REALLY good!

Live events are incredible. It sounds...Live! The band out in front, clearly defined with ambient sound coming from ANY direction around you. You can hear voices or applause coming from behind you. You're at the performance and no longer is the music inside your head. It's out where it belongs.

The mixing process uses more microphones to achieve the desired effect.

THIS IS A GAME CHANGER and takes the music experience to a new level. Amazon has 3-D audio also (but requires their own proprietary software and hardware). So the industry seems to be supportive but Apple, using Dolby Atmos, is a powerful force to compete against. 

This is why Amazon and others have lowered their prices. 

What Apple is doing is readily available and has been used by people mixing with headphones for quite a long time. Some of it is really quite good too. 

Amazon already announced support for Atmos and other spatial audio formats.

In order to experience 'Spatial Audio'. This means you need an I-phone with IOS 14.6.  and an Apple device using either the H-1 or W-1 chip.

Important to understand... in order to experience Apples new 'Lossless' music at high resolution it will still require using a DAC. You don't get the HD quality when streaming on Bluetooth. (320kps) So, the Spatial audio is actually streamed at a lower resolution.

Here's the question... which sounds better? Lossless music through a DAC at 24bit @48 kHz or even as high as 196kHz OR "Spatial Audio" at a lower resolution?  IMO... The sound of the standard rate Spatial audio is a whole new listening experience and is superior...by far. 

So... for $9.99 a month I'll use Apple lossless on my main system and regular headphones using a DAC. For the immersive experience I'll use my Airpods for the spatial effect. More toys = more better!

Tidal or any of the other music services can't give me all advancements that Apple offers. Amazon, my current service, did give me a discount yesterday that equals that of Apple. However, Amazon doesn't have the Spatial Audio for my Airpods that I'd get included with Apple music.

It's nice to see for a change, while it lasts, the consumer benefit from competition, stimulating both lower prices, and technological innovation.