Amazon Rip-off (in a good way!)

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Many years ago, I discovered that it was possible to convert my CD music files so they would play on my PC. It was a slow process, but over the period of years that followed, I managed to convert ALL my existing CD collection – over 150 albums, and I now convert all my recent music purchases too.

Ripping CDs is now a popular pastime for a lot of people of my generation as it makes it a very quick process to get music  onto iPods, Phones and Tablets. In more recent times, I’ve made a few purchases where I’ve downloaded JUST the MP3 files, but I do miss the CD case and the sleeve notes – so the new free service from Amazon launched yesterday in the UK suits me perfectly.

Now, if you buy a CD, cassette or vinyl from Amazon, they’ll automatically give you the same music converted to MP3 – for free! and if you already have your tunes stored in the ‘Amazon Music Cloud’, they’ll drop the MP3s in their automatically. And if that’s not enough, they even back-track on some of your old purchases from them and offer those in MP3 format too! The innovation has been around a while on Amazon in the USA and although it doesn’t cover all their music catalogue, I think it’s a brilliant added-value service.

First purchase using AutoRip? – HedKandi Beach House 2013 – a compilation album of ‘summery toons’ that includes three continuous one-hour mixes, ideal for those Summer Parties and BBQs that we’re so used to here!