Amazon gives digital copies of CDs, vinyl and cassettes for free
Amazon has announced AutoRip, a service which will give UK customers a free digital MP3 copy of any CDs, vinyl or even cassettes purchased online.
The AutoRip scheme applied to past, present and future purchases from Amazon.co.uk dating back to 1999. Customer will find their eligible albums and tracks on Amazon Cloud Player next time they sign in.
This means even if you bought a CD years and years ago but lost (or even sold it), you can now listen to it again to you hearts content by streaming it over the internet. The move ups Amazon's game against rivals such as Apple's iTunes Match.
That music can then be enjoyed pretty much wherever since there is an Amazon Cloud Player app for iOS, Android and Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets.
"What would you say if you bought CDs, vinyl or even cassettes from a company 14 years ago, and then 14 years later that company licensed the rights from the record companies to give you the MP3 versions of those albums… and then to top it off, did that for you automatically and for free?" said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.
"We love these opportunities to do something extra for our customers." he added.
Amazon said there are more than 350,000 albums, including titles from every major record label, available for AutoRip with more being added all the time. There is an AutoRip logo – blue and green arrows - to make it clear.
AutoRip music is provided in what Amazon calls 'high-quality' 256Kbps MP3. Whether that is high quality to you is another matter. It's free so we can't really complain too much!
Furthermore, the AutoRip tunes automatically added to Amazon Cloud Player don't count against the storage limits.
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Comments
martman said: So this is a weird take on streaming I guess its a cool idea but this also means you have to buy every song you listen to rightId rather use the free music streaming service Im using now Torch Music since I dont really have to buy anything for it I can also build playlists with it and stuff its pretty awesome