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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

#81

Post by jdechko »

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…

Also, buying the mp3's essentially gives you a CD for free, albeit at a slightly, yet imperceptible to most, reduced quality. Coupled with the fact that most people buying CD's still only buy them for a handful of songs, I think Amazon is making a bigger deal out of this than it really is.

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

#82

Post by Raphael »

ghshephard wrote: post #52
ubercow13 wrote: post #28

On clicking through to the eligible CDs many of them seem to cost less to purchase than buying the MP3s to begin with. Isn't that a bit silly? If you just want the MP3s it's sometimes cheaper now to just buy the CD anyway. Edit: am I right in thinking the difference is that this offer only nets you the tracks in your cloud player account whereas buying the mp3s means you can download them too and do what you like wit…

A significant majority of the time when I want to purchase MP3s from iTunes it is cheaper for me to purchase the CD from Amazon and have it shipped to me, then iTunes match it. I've got about 80 or so CDs I've done this with. I don't know if I'm exploiting a loophole or not, but I figure because I have the physical CD at my desk, it's legit. I'm still uncertain if this is shady behavior on my part or not - but I save…

You are making a trade-off in time, since you have to wait for the CD to ship and then you have to go to the trouble to rip it.

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

#83

Post by bbgm »

RobAtticus wrote: post #58
ubercow13 wrote: post #28

On clicking through to the eligible CDs many of them seem to cost less to purchase than buying the MP3s to begin with. Isn't that a bit silly? If you just want the MP3s it's sometimes cheaper now to just buy the CD anyway. Edit: am I right in thinking the difference is that this offer only nets you the tracks in your cloud player account whereas buying the mp3s means you can download them too and do what you like wit…

Your cloud player tracks are free to download. I do it all the time to have them uploaded to my Google Play account which I use for streaming.

I do something similar with Spotify. Works quite well

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

#84

Post by jdechko »

induscreep wrote: post #20

Why can't they just offer FLAC and eliminate CDs altogether?

Agreed, though I'm entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, so I'd prefer ALAC from iTunes. Since I prefer to rip my CD's in ALAC, I would have no need to buy the actual CD. Of course, I suspect that's why the labels have been holding true hi-bitrate files back from the likes of Apple & Amazon.

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

#85

Post by portman »

earbitscom wrote: post #54
khuey wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how few CDs sell these days.

It still dwarfs all other formats and revenue streams for recorded music.

Source? I thought MP3 surpassed CD over a year ago...

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/01/digital-music-...

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

#86

Post by prezjordan »

pdknsk wrote: post #24

I just want to point out that the link is an affiliate link. It does no harm (other than Amazon making a bit less), and I don't know what the policy on this is, but IMO if someone makes money from this it should be the site providing the traffic (YC).

Side note: is there a policy (on Amazon's end) for editing affiliate links? Could pg theoretically swap the tag to ?ref=yc-20 if he wanted to?

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

#87

Post by smackfu »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #50
Gmo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it does not do the same thing, Apple doesn't sell CDs.

It doesn't need to. iTunes Match doesn't care about where you purchased your CDs. If you want to continue buying CDs at Amazon, that's fine. Rip them in iTunes, and iTunes Match will keep them in the cloud.

If iTunes Match requires ripping, and this just uses purchase history, it's pretty fundamentally different.

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

#88

Post by roc »

ubercow13 wrote: post #28

On clicking through to the eligible CDs many of them seem to cost less to purchase than buying the MP3s to begin with. Isn't that a bit silly? If you just want the MP3s it's sometimes cheaper now to just buy the CD anyway. Edit: am I right in thinking the difference is that this offer only nets you the tracks in your cloud player account whereas buying the mp3s means you can download them too and do what you like wit…

It's been that way for a while. I've been buying and ripping myself since back when the last independent record store around me closed, and online music was only selling DRM'd 128kbps tracks.

It was really about the DRM and the quality (I'm no golden ear, but even on my dicey consumer equipment I can hear the artifacts at 128). The price difference was just icing on the cake.

It's not like it took a lot of effort or time to put the CD in the tray, hit "go" and get 320 kbps and a FLAC track (for kicks).

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

#89

Post by rgbrgb »

thevdude wrote: post #47
rgbrgb wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most people don't want FLAC. It's huge and incompatible with the most popular players for no noticeable benefit to the vast majority of listeners. AIFF or WAV would be much better candidates if we were going down the lossless digital music route because they are more widely compatible (though a 320 kbps mp3 is the most I'll ever need).

> It's huge ... no noticeable benefit > WAV would be much better

I'm just saying that if we're choosing a lossless audio codec I'd like one supported by Apple. I'll sacrifice storage capacity for being able to listen with iTunes/iPhones. That said... I always choose mp3's for everything that's not a "master copy".

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

#90

Post by wiredfool »

jdechko wrote: post #81
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…

Also, buying the mp3's essentially gives you a CD for free, albeit at a slightly, yet imperceptible to most, reduced quality. Coupled with the fact that most people buying CD's still only buy them for a handful of songs, I think Amazon is making a bigger deal out of this than it really is.

Sometimes I'll buy the used amazon cds instead of mp3s if it's something that I'm not totally earwormed on. I've had a couple recently that were 1c + shipping, and came within a couple of days.

One quick trip through the ripper and they're done.

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