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Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

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Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#61

Post by periferral »

southpolesteve wrote: post #56
periferral wrote: post #39

Nice. But I wish Amazon would start a trade-in program (similar to Apple). I have CDs from way back when and I'd like to able to get MP3 versions of those CDs. I'm happy to send the CDs to Amazon and have then replace them with MP3s on my cloud player. How about that for a business idea?! edit: Apple doesn't have this but they do convert MP3s you upload to legal versions. Unsure if Amazon provides this as well. Also,…

There is a startup that does this! www.murfie.com Disclosure: I work for murfie

Looks like a great service. However, my reason to not using you however is that I'm tied in to the Amazon ecosystem. I buy all my new music on Amazon. I buy my movies, tv shows there too. Using you means I'm tied to another service for a specific need. Do you guys have tie-in with Amazon in any way? Amazon should really buy you guys (unless you want to stand alone)

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#62

Post by periferral »

suninwinter wrote: post #46
periferral wrote: post #39

Nice. But I wish Amazon would start a trade-in program (similar to Apple). I have CDs from way back when and I'd like to able to get MP3 versions of those CDs. I'm happy to send the CDs to Amazon and have then replace them with MP3s on my cloud player. How about that for a business idea?! edit: Apple doesn't have this but they do convert MP3s you upload to legal versions. Unsure if Amazon provides this as well. Also,…

Amazon now has Cloud Player Premium[1], which is very similar to iTunes Match. "Import your music collection - even music purchased from iTunes or ripped from CDs. All imported songs we match are instantly made available in Cloud Player and upgraded to high-quality 256 Kbps audio." [1]: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2658409011

exactly. which means i need to rip everything. i dont. amazon should just take my cds and give me mp3s.

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#63

Post by majormajor »

This is pretty awesome, but I can't help myself see it rather cynically in that I don't expect it to expand to books or movies any time soon. Especially not books.

Ripping a CD is so trivial and such an old practice at this point, and so many MP3s can fit on a portable device, that buying a CD already de facto gave you the MP3s for free (except for the bit where you'd have to pay to get more Cloud Player storage if you want to use Amazon to host them in the cloud for you). So it's a cool freebie that isn't really costing much.

But I can't rip my own books, and the Kindle cloud hosting and syncing to the last position read across devices and everything is so damn useful that there are a lot of books I own physical copies of that I probably will end up buying again digitally. So, for me at least, doing this for books actually would cost the publishers and Amazon lost revenue, unlike for MP3s. I just don't see them deciding that that revenue is less valuable than the customer goodwill it would create.

Bundling a Kindle version and a hardcover version at a discounted price would be a nice halfway step, though personally, I'm increasingly moving towards a "buy on Kindle, find hardcover (sometimes used) if I really like it" strategy.

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#64

Post by slouch »

rgbrgb wrote: post #15

I wonder how many people both buy CD's and care about CloudPlayer? I guess I don't know anyone from either party so there's a chance of there being some overlap. To me this seems like an utter waste of resources. How about offering a Spotify-like streaming service? How about making CloudPlayer free for the first 20,000 songs like Google Play? How about making a web player that doesn't make me feel like I'm in Target?…

To me, CloudPlayer means, "I can download MP3s." That's all I use it for. I just got the RATM XX box set MP3s a few minutes ago, and that saves me putting the CDs in a computer and ripping them myself.

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#66

Post by alanctgardner2 »

epaulson wrote: post #10

It's a little frustrating that only some discs are eligible. I wonder if that's just because they haven't ripped everything or if they have specific license agreements. I'll pitch my friend's here - Murfie ( https://www.murfie.com/ ) does much the same thing, but also includes a marketplace so you can sell your discs. Because everything's backed by a physical CD in their warehouse, everything can just happen in the c…

That's interesting, but the prospect of having them go bankrupt and not only lose digital files, but also physical disks, is a bit disturbing. Also, no word on whether disks are fungible... if I send you my autographed maroon 5 boxset, will I get the same boxset back? Or just an equivalent product feom the warehouse?

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#67

Post by chimeracoder »

majormajor wrote: post #63

This is pretty awesome, but I can't help myself see it rather cynically in that I don't expect it to expand to books or movies any time soon. Especially not books. Ripping a CD is so trivial and such an old practice at this point, and so many MP3s can fit on a portable device, that buying a CD already de facto gave you the MP3s for free (except for the bit where you'd have to pay to get more Cloud Player storage if y…

I wish that they'd do this for books. The biggest thing keeping me from buying more ebooks is that they're usually the same price as the physical book - and, in some cases, more expensive than the physical book.

At that price, I'd just as soon buy the physical copy.

On the other hand, it would be nice to know that, when I buy a physical copy, I also have access to a digital version if needed. In the case of technical books, which I reference only occasionally (but need very immediately when I do reference them), it would be perfect.

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#69

Post by j_s »

nirvdrum wrote: post #21
jerf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is selling MP3s. Anyone interested in "owning" the album should simply make their own backups of the MP3s in question, which have no DRM on them. I do. Their cloud service is nice and all, but MP3s can still be removed from it. If Amazon can remove it from my personal hard drives and backups, I've already lost anyhow. Amazon's doing it right, here; if you want convenience, OK. If you want to manage the MP3s yo…

You could always download it from their service, too. I routinely download tracks on my phone so I have something to listen to when I have poor mobile service.

Once I accidentally managed to quickly download mp3's for free when my billing info was out of date.

Re: Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free

#70

Post by w1ntermute »

rgbrgb wrote: post #15

I wonder how many people both buy CD's and care about CloudPlayer? I guess I don't know anyone from either party so there's a chance of there being some overlap. To me this seems like an utter waste of resources. How about offering a Spotify-like streaming service? How about making CloudPlayer free for the first 20,000 songs like Google Play? How about making a web player that doesn't make me feel like I'm in Target?…

You're missing the fact that you can get any songs from supported CDs that you bought after 1998. Even if you don't buy CDs anymore, if you've bought any from Amazon in the past, this is a great way to get access to them in the cloud.
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