In completely coincidental fashion, I just blogged recently about my struggles with being a “music collector” and one problem I’ve had in recent years–with everything moving the way of the exclusively digital–is that I often miss having the CD and artwork when I buy an album on iTunes or some similar digital music outlet. In fact, I often will want to buy a CD but wish I could have the music immediately like you can with a purchase via iTunes or AmazonMP3. Thanks to digital retailers, we don’t have to wait in line at a music store or try to hunt down a CD the day it comes out. Now we can just purchase and download it at midnight on release day! All is right with the world.
I love how some indie artists will allow you to order a CD or vinyl album from their website and then email you the album digitally right away too. That, my friends, is the way to do it. Heck — I’ve seen some artists send full digital albums weeks in advance if you just simply preorder it (This method threatens albums to be “leaked” by insensitive and irresponsible music listeners–ruining it for the artist and the fans alike–but I digress…)
Just today I was perusing Amazon.com, like I tend to daily–I’m kind of addicted to their store, sales, and selections (I admit it. haha)–but, in all honesty, I was grabbing a link for our reader review page of Sanctus Real’s Pieces Of Our Past: The Sanctus Real Anthology when I saw this interesting little graphic:
Uhhh… AutoRip? Could that be what I think it is? Sure enough — and I swear I’m writing this as nothing more than an elated fan and don’t mean to sound like a commercial — AutoRip is just what it sounds like. If you buy select CD’s (like, actual physical compact discs) that display that “AutoRip” logo on the page, they’ll give you the mp3 download IMMEDIATELY… for FREE! According to the instructional video on their website, if you’ve bought any music on Amazon since 1998 that is eligible for this program, they’re including it in your Amazon Cloud player too.
Again, I can’t help but geek out about this. I’ve always wished you could just instantly get a digital copy of your music when you order the physical disc online and I’m stoked to see a big online retailer like Amazon.com has debuted this option.
Now… if we could only just get free Kindle books with a paperback purchase (…hey! how about applying that “any purchase since 1998” gig to books too!) and maybe even digital movies (OK, I’m getting greedy here)… 😉
Does this AutoRip feature excite anyone else?