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Amazon AutoRip Service Provides Free MP3 Versions of Purchased CDs

Amazon's digital media services just keep getting better and better
Jan. 10, 2013 Paul Thurrott

Amazon today announced a new service that gives customers free MP3 versions of the audio CDs they purchase from Amazon. This unique offering—a key advantage the firm can offer over rivals like Apple, Google, and Microsoft—comes with a very interesting twist: It includes previous CD purchases, too, dating back all the way to 1998.

And people say Apple innovates.

“What would you say if you bought music CDs from a company 15 years ago, and then 15 years later that company licensed the rights from the record companies to give you the MP3 versions of those CDs … and then to top it off, did that for you automatically and for free?” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a prepared statement. “Well, starting today, it's available to all of our customers – past, present, and future – at no cost. We love these opportunities to do something unexpected for our customers.”

Here’s how Amazon AutoRip works.

New purchases. Whenyou buy what Amazon calls AutoRip CDs—they’re marked with a special blue and green icon in the company’s online store--the MP3 versions of those CDs are automatically added to your Cloud Player library, free of charge, for immediate playback or download. So you don’t need to wait for the CD to arrive to enjoy the music.

Previous purchases. Thosewho previously purchased AutoRip CDs at any time since Amazon first opened its Music Store in 1998 will find MP3 versions of those CDs in their Cloud Player libraries, again automatically and for free. This includes over 50,000 CD albums, including titles from every major record label. And Amazon says more are being added all the time.

Quality. AutoRip music is provided in 256 Kbps MP3 format.

Free storage. Like Amazon MP3 purchases, AutoRip music does not count against the storage limit of your Amazon Cloud Player/Cloud Drive.

I’ve written recently about my use of Amazon Cloud Player, and have in fact written an Amazon Cloud Player mini-book. Checking Cloud Player this morning, I see a ton of previous audio CD purchases in my Cloud Player, including CDs dating back to 1999! (These are generally horrific musical choices, so let’s just skip over that bit.)

This is just amazing, folks. You can learn more about AutoRip on the Amazon web site.

Discuss this Article 19

paebin2s
on Jan 10, 2013

So I have seen this news on a few sites headlines but decided to read it here.

While its a nice feature, its not that big of deal unless you have been buying a lot of CD's from Amazon for a long time now. That shrinks who will be exited about this way down.

Even then have you not ripped them already? I mean I cant remember the last CD I bought from anywhere. Maybe from Target 6-7 years ago? I have boxes some place full of them after I had my ripping party 7-8 years ago or more. I am not sure why I even keep them.

Again cool feature for some I guess.

screamndigit
on Jan 10, 2013

incredible. this is the last time i'm going to ask myself "why do i have a zune subscription?" time to cancel, this is a no brainer. amazon gets it.

pthurrott
on Jan 10, 2013

Oddly, the one thing Amazon doesn't offer is something like Xbox Music Pass. God, I wish they did.

SvenJ
on Feb 5, 2013

Maybe so you can listen to stuff you don't actually 'own' whenever you want, on a number of different platforms, connected or not?

This is a cool service/option, but it saves you one step after buying the music, if you buy it from Amazon.

abw1987
on Jan 10, 2013

I am truly blown away by this.

I will probably still rip CDs myself, just so I have 320kbps mp3s. Maybe that means I'm living in the past. Regardless, it will be great to have all my previous purchases already sitting in the cloud player, with no need for me to bother with uploading.

illrigger
on Jan 10, 2013

Only living in the past so far as you should be ripping lossless FLAC, ALAC or WMA - for mobile, 256k is generally enough, but for home use with storage as cheap as it is, lossless is the way to go.

I am actually getting SACD and DVD-A and ripping them to lossless 24-bit 48khz FLAC now when I can, although I am doubting that my sound system can really make use of them. I would go back to buying LPs, but having everything on my server and being able to play it on my HTPC and surround sound system is just too convenient.

alex araujo
on Jan 10, 2013

This is intriguing; the Idea of being able to get a copy of a CD immediately is very interesting. Amazon seems to be trying to wean buyers off of physical media by getting them accustomed to downloading their content, thereby helping to lock them into amazon’s ecosystem.

It is however possible that this program may get amazon in some hot water with the music industry, as I could theoretically get two copies of a CD; say one for a present and the second for myself, for the price of one.

drv
on Jan 10, 2013

What's the easiest way to listen to my music in the Cloud Player from a WP 7 and WP 8 phone?

pthurrott
on Jan 11, 2013

Right now, I'm not aware of a way. Given Amazon's support of Win8/Windows Phone, I do expect these apps to appear this year.

/crosses fingers

drv
on Jan 11, 2013

Thanks, Paul. I'll cross my fingers, too.

Hey, I just noticed that AutoRip has included albums I purchased as gifts as well as those I bought for myself. Seems like a little flaw in the service. Do you (or anyone else) know if there's a way to transfer albums to other people? I don't want some of them and I'm sure my gift recipients would like them. Likewise, I'd like to get MP3s for CDs I've received as gifts.

ryanrpalmer
on Jan 10, 2013

Love Amazon's ecosystem. I switched from Zune for my music & movies to Amazon MP3 and Amazon Instant Video. The main reason? Amazon always sends me e-mails with discounts and free gift cards. The secondary reason? My MP3 and video purchases are available on a wide range of devices while I can also import them to my old Zune MP3 player. It doesn't get an better. I even cancelled Netflix and exclusively use Prime Instant Video for streaming.

ryanrpalmer
on Jan 11, 2013

I'd also like to add that after being a loyal Zune customer since day one, I have never received any type of deal from Microsoft for free music or movie rentals.
Amazon just seems to get it.

alistair3408
on Jan 11, 2013

Am I missing something here? They've marketed it differently, but what's the difference between this service and iTunes Match? The only difference I see is that when you buy new CDs, you get both the physical and virtual media. The bitrate offered is the same (I'm not certain that 256kps is consistent throughout the iTunes collection, but definitely possible: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/11/20/one-trick-for-getting-itunes-match-to-rec...).

pthurrott
on Jan 11, 2013

You are missing something here.

Amazon already offers music matching in its Cloud Player service, even the free version. This is their iTunes Match competitor.

AutoRip is complementary. It provides MP3-based versions of all the CD--not digital--music you purchased over the years (and going forward). So it's like iTunes Match, but for free, and for physical purchases. It's a service Apple can't offer because Apple only sells digital music. And they charge for iTunes Match.

vvincent1
on Jan 11, 2013

In my opinion, this is brilliant. You automatically get access to MP3s of any CD you'd purchased from Amazon. Which means that you no longer need to rip the CD and upload it back to the cloud. This saves bandwidth (for those of us on connections with bandwidth caps) and instantly makes your physical purchase available digitally,

If Amazon can take this concept and apply it to the physical book market (i.e. give you a free ebook copy of every physical book you've purchased from them), then they will have the formula for beating every other book seller out there.

moroboshi
on Jan 11, 2013

Nice idea, but I'm personally more interested in seeing Amazon Cloud Player on more platforms. A Windows 8 version would be a start, as would Windows Phone 8.

pthurrott
on Jan 11, 2013

Agreed on both. In fact I tweeted about this a few weeks ago.

That said, the web version of Cloud Player can be pinned with IE in Windows RT. It's not bad.

moroboshi
on Jan 12, 2013

I find the web version of Cloud Player to be disappointingly slow and clunky. Web apps are no substitute for a native app unfortunately.

It's a rather tragic and sad thing to say, but iTunes 11, even on Windows, is a better experience than Amazon Cloud Player in a browser. I have my entire music library in both iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player, and the former is still my go to for music streaming.

Come on Amazon, you can do better.

shehaal
on Jan 13, 2013

Now if only Amazon offered their MP3 service outside of the USA.. It's so bloody frustrating that services like this or eMusic or any of the other dozens of similar services won't sell mp3s to Australia (Apple and MS being one of the few that do) - yet I can get in my car, drive to the local record shop, and buy the physical product. Yay for 2013 customer inconvenience!

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