This also saves on the effort of having to upload the CD to my hardrive in order to convert it to MP3. In this case I would be buying a physical copy of the album for only £3.51 more than what I was going to pay for the digital copy. The biggest advantage that Amazon has to offer over its competitors is this:Īmazon’s AutoRip service offers a free immediate MP3 download with any purchase of a CD or LP. Snippets of tracks can be previewed by clicking the play button to the left of the track, and customer reviews can be accessed by scrolling down the page.Īmazon doesn’t have the curative edge that 7digital has, but makes up for it in social proof.

The album product page itself is very well presented, lots of space and clear call-to-actions for buying the complete album or individual songs. However if you’re searching from the homepage, where the default is set to all, you might find that by typing in an artist, MP3 is not a featured option.Īlthough if you click on the ‘artist name in Music’ option, you’ll be directed to that artist’s product listing page, where the the MP3 options are clearly displayed. The default area is whatever section of Amazon you’re currently searching in. It’s the search functionality you’re already used to from Amazon, with predictive keywords and the ability to change which area of Amazon you wish to search in. Also the live chart to the right is often interesting, throwing up the occasional anomaly such as Dire Straits remaining inexplicably high in the current top 10. It does however highlight Amazon’s commitment to offering older albums at a discount or in multibuy offers, which other platforms don’t tend to do.

Personally I find it a little bewildering and I rarely access albums using the homepage. It’s the shotgun approach of blasting as many offers and products at the wall in the hope of attracting every user’s attention. Top new releases are listed at the top, along with top selling albums from Amazon’s various sales and offers.

If you know your way around Amazon, then you’ll know your way around here. HomepageĪs you probably would’ve guessed, the Amazon MP3 page is accessed from the Amazon desktop site and features exactly the same layout and functionality of the regular site. It has 15m songs available, all of which can be played on any device or platform.

Amazon began selling MP3s free from DRM (digital rights management) in 2008, a year before iTunes removed this restrictive feature.

Buying mp3 on amazon