On Windows computers, there is something called exclusive mode for sound devices. When this mode is enabled, some applications can claim exclusive control of your sound playback device which means that they can access the sound hardware directly without using the intermediate layer of access provided by the Windows operating system.
Amazon Music app supports this feature and uses it to play the music at a very high quality. When this feature is enabled, you are going to listen to great quality music without any meddling by any intermediate Windows playback engines.
Here is how you can enable Exclusive Mode for Amazon Music app on Windows:
- Press Win+R to open the Run dialog, type control mmsys.cpl and press Enter.
- Select your playback device from the list and click on the Properties button.
- In the properties window, switch to the Advanced tab.
- Select all the checkboxes listed under the Exclusive Mode section. Click OK to save the settings.
- Launch Amazon Music app and login to your Amazon Prime account. Click on your profile picture and choose Settings from the menu that appears.
- On the settings screen, enable the option Allow Exclusive Mode. This setting does not enable the exclusive mode yet, it only allows you to enable the exclusive mode for playback devices.
- Now click on the devices icon (near the bottom-right corner) on Amazon Music app, select the device for which you want to enable the exclusive mode and then choose the Exclusive Mode option for it.
According to the Amazon website, when Amazon Music is using exclusive mode for a playback device, it will block other applications from playing sounds through that device. In addition, it will play the highest quality of music possible through your playback sound device.