Hot on the heels of Apple Music's Lossless and Spatial Audio coming at no extra cost to subscribers in June, Amazon has responded by offering its Amazon Music HD Hi-Res tier free to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers right now!

Amazon Music HD has more than 70 million lossless CD-quality songs in HD (16-bit / 44.1 kHz) and over 7 million “Ultra HD” songs (24-bit / 48kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz), which are effectively studio masters, says the streaming service.

Amazon Music HD has already been making waves with its US$14.99 per month hi-res tier undercutting the price of TIDAL and the rest. This saw Qobuz respond with a price drop of its Studio Premier tier matching Amazon's US$14.99. In fact, sign up for an annual Qobuz subscription, and that monthly tariff drops to an equivalent of US$12.49 per month.

This is also arguably the reason why the green streaming giant proclaimed the launch of its Spotify HiFi tier, which is rumoured to cost US$9.99 per month when it lands later in the year.

Now, with Apple Music announcing its Lossless Audio coming bundled in with its US$9.99 per month subscription, Amazon continues to push the price of hi-res streaming down.

Amazon Music HD, which was an extra US$5 per month premium bolt-on for lossless hi-res, now comes bundled in with the standard subscriptions. That means you can now enjoy Amazon Music HD with the Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan that costs just US$7.99 per month for Prime members and US$9.99 per month for Amazon customers. The Family Plan comes in at US$14.99 per month.

We are told that there will be no extra charge for HD from your next billing cycle for those already signed up to Amazon Music HD.

All eyes are now on TIDAL and Deezer to see how they respond now that Apple and Amazon are offering their premium tiers for free. As the hi-res streaming battle hots up it is all excellent news for music lovers as hi-res, and lossless streaming prices come down and the choice increases.