News - Amazon AutoRip music service comes to Europe

[Smudger]

I've already mentioned my shameful ones. Alright, there were 2 Bublé albums...

All the rest are way cool, 'cos I'm hip with the kids.

[krazy_olie]

Nothing shameful,

The licensing is definitely weird here. Have you retrospectively bought the mp3s separate from the cds?
You could buy a cd, get the cloud ripped thing then sell you cd as new, and there'd be absolutely nothing wrong with it... Most people would say it is wrong to rip a cd and sell it whilst keeping the rips.


It's not added anything from the marketplace (which is most of my purchases), which is to be expected. Some purchases aren't autoripped enabled too.

Personally won't find it useful, maybe some people will.

[Saracen]

There is a potential gotcha for auto-rip.

If you buy an album (one eligible for auto-rip because not all are, due to licencing), it then auto-rips to your cloud.

If you then decide to return an album AND if you have downloaded ANY tracks from that album, you WILL be charged the price for the MP3 version of the album, which MIGHT be higher than the price of the CD you sent back.

This applies if you have any device set to auto-download and any track from the album has been auto-downloaded.

So just be aware, if you use auto-rip at all, and send albums back, you could end up getting a bill, not a refund, for having done so.

Also, by using cloud player, you do give Amazon permission to search your devices for music, and "related content. That alone makes it a non-starter for me, 'cos it's none of their damn business what else is on my "devices" and I'm certainly not giving them permission to go searching and indexing them.

If I want an MP3 of my CDs, I'll do it myself, licencing or not, and Amazon can keep their prying snoots out of my "devices". They're getting to be as bad as Google.

[crossy]

There is a potential gotcha for auto-rip. If you buy an album (one eligible for auto-rip because not all are, due to licencing), it then auto-rips to your cloud. If you then decide to return an album AND if you have downloaded ANY tracks from that album, you WILL be charged the price for the MP3 version of the album, which MIGHT be higher than the price of the CD you sent back.

Ouch - that's pretty sharp practice - you'd think that at least Amazon would remind you and give you the option to purge those "unlicensed" tracks.

Also, by using cloud player, you do give Amazon permission to search your devices for music, and "related content. That alone makes it a non-starter for me, 'cos it's none of their damn business what else is on my "devices" and I'm certainly not giving them permission to go searching and indexing them.

The cloud player I last used was a web-browser based thing, which I'm assuming (naive mode on) would be blocked from a fishing expedition on your machine by the browser sandbox - or does that sandbox allow free read access, but blocks (fingers devoutly crossed) from write access?

I used the AutoRip service three times on Friday - although I don't see an opt-out so I got to use the service by accident. "13" (Black Sabbath) and "Bula Quo" (Status Quo) were fine - and it was great to be able to listen to the albums without having to wait for the postman - but "Black Dog Barking" (Airbourne) the first disk was AutoRip'd but the second (bonus) disk was missing.

So my evaluation of AR was 10/10 to start with, but I'll knock off a point for the Airbourne issue above, another one off for the opt out, and another four for the issue that Saracen raises above. So overall 4/10 - bad show Amazon, good idea in theory, but implementation needs some work.

[Saracen]

Ouch - that's pretty sharp practice - you'd think that at least Amazon would remind you and give you the option to purge those "unlicensed" tracks.

The cloud player I last used was a web-browser based thing, which I'm assuming (naive mode on) would be blocked from a fishing expedition on your machine by the browser sandbox - or does that sandbox allow free read access, but blocks (fingers devoutly crossed) from write access?

I used the AutoRip service three times on Friday - although I don't see an opt-out so I got to use the service by accident. "13" (Black Sabbath) and "Bula Quo" (Status Quo) were fine - and it was great to be able to listen to the albums without having to wait for the postman - but "Black Dog Barking" (Airbourne) the first disk was AutoRip'd but the second (bonus) disk was missing.

So my evaluation of AR was 10/10 to start with, but I'll knock off a point for the Airbourne issue above, another one off for the opt out, and another four for the issue that Saracen raises above. So overall 4/10 - bad show Amazon, good idea in theory, but implementation needs some work.

Well, I can see where Amazon are coming from with that 'gotcha'. It's apparently aimed at the auto-rip equivalent of the long-standibg practice of buying an album, copying it and taking it back, and that is a practise going back to the days of LP's and the initial release of the audio cassette.

So I kinda sympathise with them on that. It's also quite possible it's required by their licencing deal.

What I don't much like is, basically, two things. First, it's buried in the T&C's, and I'd bet a very small proportion of users ever bother to read them. So I expect howls of anger if/when they start applying that. Second, that youcan end up paying more for the "free" MP3 version that the CD version. Why in hell would the MP3 version cost more than the physical version in the first place? That strikes me as an outright con, right there.

Personally, I don't really give a damn. I've never bought an album from Amazon, and don't have any particular plans to start. My first choice is to buy locally, be that supermarket, or small owner-managed places, though the latter are getting harder to find.

Also, I'm an an age where an increasingly small proportion of "new" music appeals, and I really know where my old man was coming from with "turn that cacophony down, will you" when I was young. Sorry Dad, I should have been more considerate.

So, mainly I buy either classical stuff I haven't got, or to fill gaps in my personal back-catalogue of the "cacophony".

And third, I increasingly find second-hand sources, including market stalks, rich veins to mine, as others seem to increasingly go digital only.

And fourth and finally, I'm not interested in Amazon's cloud services (or anyone elses), so will never sign up for cloud player. If I want to sync my music across various devices, I'm quite capable of doing it myself without letting nosy US corporates do it for me.


But I hope anyone that does use this service, and though it holds no appeal for me I can see why others might like it, does so eyes-open, and is aware of the issues.

[crossy]

Personally, I don't really give a damn. I've never bought an album from Amazon, and don't have any particular plans to start. My first choice is to buy locally, be that supermarket, or small owner-managed places, though the latter are getting harder to find.

And third, I increasingly find second-hand sources, including market stalks, rich veins to mine, as others seem to increasingly go digital only.

Problem I've got is that (locally at least) the supermarkets (and whatever WH Smith stock) are the only game in town. We used to have a couple of good indy stores but the rising rates and competition from the likes of HMV killed them. Now our HMV got killed also - reputedly by rising rates on it's sq.ft and the "pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap deals" from folks like Asda.

So I've got a choice - either "commute" to the nearest city in the hope of finding a decent store or hold my nose and use Amazon.

Although one area where we probably are in agreement (other than in the poor choice of "mainstream" music) is that digital only isn't attractive for me. I must have that shiny disk to feel that I "own" that music. As has been demonstrated with the Kindle on previous occasions - Amazon can withdraw titles when they see fit.

Apart from anything else, my car's old enough that it has no line-in or USB capability, so shiny disks are still the preferred way to get something decent to listen to. Although given the examples of my music taste I've given above, you may want to argue the term "decent" wrt my musical taste.

[MrJim]

Hmm, maybe this'd be a suitable subject for a Hexus QOTW ...

What is the most embarrassing/awful album music that might appear on your Amazon Player because of AutoRip?

Apart from the One Direction/JLS stuff I bought for the kids I'm actually pretty well off - checked last night and the most "out there" one I'd got was The Collected Works of Flanders And Swann (or I think that's what it was called) and that's one I bought for myself, (The Hippopotamus Song and The Gasman Cometh being quite amusing).

I see your JLS, and raise you...two hours worth of Gregorian chant