News
News Categories

Amazon Launches AutoRip Service

By Andy Sim - on 11 Jan 2013, 11:20am

Amazon Launches AutoRip Service

Image credit: Amazon.com

For those among us who bother to purchase compact discs, it's quite natural to rip these CDs after acquiring them such that we can listen to the digital tracks via our mobile devices as well. With Amazon's newly launched service, however, that's one less step you'll have to take, if you happen to be in America that is. 

The AutoRip service, available in the States only, automatically stores digital copies of CDs bought from Amazon's store into the customer's cloud storage account. These digital tracks are then made accessible via Amazon's Cloud Player, or through mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.

Although Amazon has acquired licensing deals with most of the major labels, this doesn't entitle the online retailer to rip every music CD it carries. According to BBC's report, Amazon has drawn up a catalogue of 50,000 compact discs which are eligible for AutoRip. This catalogue was compiled based on albums which proved to be most popular with Amazon customers for the past 15 years. Some notable titles include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and Adele's "21".

Customers who have purchased a CD from Amazon listed in the catalogue are eligible to download an MP3 copy of it. The launch of AutoRip is also seen as an attempt by Amazon to pry market share away from rivals such as Apple and Google, who offer similar cloud storage services of their own.  

In comparison, AutoRip isn't all that different from MP3.com's "Beam It" feature apart from the licensing concerns. The latter was sued by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) more than ten years ago for providing the ripping service to consumers without an explicit license.

Source: BBC News 

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.