Something for nothing? – With back-to-back Apple Music and Amazon Music announcements, nearly so. At $9.99/month, Apple Music subscribers now have an in-app menu option to select lossless streaming quality across what is promised to eventually be the entire catalogue of 75 millions songs in ALAC aka Apple lossless audio code. Responding in kind, Amazon Music opened up their HD service at no extra cost to current Unlimited subscribers in early markets like Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the US and Canada. Both Apple and Amazon now offer CD-quality streaming plus a smattering of better-than-Redbook content up to 24/192. The cloud of music, at our fingertips like rain upon demand, just got a lot bigger. Yet the cost to the consumer is negligible. It's a bright new age for listeners, a dark new age for the musicians providing this content for very little pay indeed. If that sits wrong with you, sites like Bandcamp also allow us to buy our favorite music whilst insuring that the artists get the lion's share of our money.
