Amazon AutoRip: get free MP3 copies of your CDs, vinyl and cassettes

Amazon has launched AutoRip, which automatically gives you free digital copies of your new and old CDs and records.

Amazon has rolled out its AutoRip service to UK customers, giving them free digital copies of physical music bought from the site.AutoRip has been in use in the US since January and has now been released in France, Germany and Italy as well as the UK.

What AutoRip does is both simple and powerful: when you buy a physical version of an album from the site (either as a CD, vinyl album or cassette), Amazon adds a free digital copy to your Cloud Player storage. AutoRip doesn't add albums bought from Amazon Marketplace sellers.

Even better, this doesn't just apply to current and future purchases from AutoRip's launch date. In fact, AutoRip will give you free digital copies of all eligible albums purchased from Amazon since 1999. In effect, Amazon is giving its UK customers 14 years of digital music, totally free of charge.

Once added to your Cloud Player locker, these digital albums can be downloaded as 256Kbps MP3 files for playing on various devices, including PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. They can also be streamed without downloading to devices via Cloud Player, allowing music to be played on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and other devices at home or on the move.

Real music goes virtual

Of course, not all albums are eligible for AutoRip, because not all recording labels have licensed this content to Amazon. Even so, Amazon reckons that more than 350,000 albums are included and are easily identifiable by the AutoRip logo (which consists of a blue and a green arrow).

As AutoRip grows, Amazon aims to add more titles and record labels to its range.

In another bonus for music buyers, digital copies of albums added to Cloud Player by AutoRip will not count against your storage limit. So all AutoRip albums come entirely free of charge. Note that Cloud Player also allows you to upload your physical music to your storage locker, but these files will count against your overall storage allowance.

What's the catch?

From what I've seen so far, there is no catch. After five months of AutoRip usage in the United States, consumer feedback has been enormously positive and upbeat.

Clearly, Amazon has launched AutoRip to compete directly with Apple's iTunes Match service, which costs £21.99 a year and has space for up to 25,000 tracks. Amazon's Premium version of Cloud Player costs the same and offers similar storage limits. AutoRip also takes on Google Play Music's locker, which comes free and can store as many as 20,000 songs.

The best of both worlds

Personally, I've been very impressed by AutoRip so far. As a middle-aged music lover, I still prefer to buy physical albums. That's also because -- as a lifelong computer user -- I know from experience how easy it is to lose digital data when storage devices crash. Hence, I think AutoRip is a great idea, because it brilliantly bridges the gap between physical and digital music.

Another cool feature of AutoRip is that as soon as you order a physical album from Amazon, a digital copy is immediately added to your Cloud Player.

In other words, you can start streaming new music as soon as you've clicked to order it. Note that if you cancel a physical order, then Amazon may charge you the full cost of the digital album if you have already downloaded it to any device.

Two problems with AutoRip

From my initial trial of AutoRip, I can see two problems for Amazon and record labels.

First, when downloading all of my previously purchased albums into Cloud Player, AutoRip added four albums that I bought from Amazon, but no longer own. These albums were gifts for other people, but I now have digital copies of all four.

Clearly, this 'cross-ownership' of music could bring complaints to Amazon from recording companies. That said, it's easy to delete unwanted albums in order to clean up your Cloud Player. 

Second, most of the criticism of AutoRip I've seen so far comes from the fact that AutoRip downloads are available only as 256Kbps MP3 files. As MP3 is not a 'lossless' compression process, music purists complain that these digital tracks are lower quality than the original versions and digital copies ripped from CDs using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec).

Other commentators argue that MP3s are simply not suitable for playing on home networks and stereos. Then again, while downloaded MP3s do lose some audio precision, Cloud Player streaming is in a lossless format.

Personally, I think that these critics are looking a gift horse in the mouth, because AutoRip gives Cloud Player users something for nothing.

Good for music companies?

Amazon reckons that AutoRip could be a boon for the music industry.

Last year, seven in ten (70%) albums bought in the UK were sold in physical formats, with 30% being digital downloads. However, the vast majority (97%) of singles were bought in digital formats. Therefore, giving away digital copies of physical albums could encourage more music lovers to buy entire albums, rather than just individual tracks.

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