Amazon debuts “AutoRip” service for physical CDs purchased since 1998
This is pretty awesome, especially if you’ve used Amazon to buy a lot of physical CDs in the past 15 years. Amazon has just announced the new AutoRip service, which the company is retroactively applying to all CDs purchased since 1998. The service works by automatically adding the DRM-free MP3 version of a purchased album to your Amazon Cloud Player, which is available online and on mobile devices like Android, as long as that album is eligible.
Amazon says that thousands of albums are currently AutoRip eligible, and more are being added all the time. A quick glance at AutoRip albums reveals that lots of classic and contemporary names are eligible for this new service, including Mumford & Sons, Adele, Taylor Swift, Fun, Alicia Keys, Pink, Paul Simon, and many more.
This is a really creative way to encourage people to still buy physical CDs, especially since the music industry has been trying to figure out a sustainable business model in an age where practically all music is digitally stored. Maybe Amazon is on to something here.
I can also see this being very useful if you buy lots of CDs as gifts for other people. In addition to being able to give someone an album full of music, you’ll get to keep a digital copy of that same album for yourself, which you can later duplicate onto a physical CD if you choose. This is a really neat idea.
Will any of you be giving CDs a second chance with this news?
[Amazon]
