crossy
:o Ouch - that's pretty sharp practice - you'd think that at least Amazon would remind you and give you the option to purge those “unlicensed” tracks.
The cloud player I last used was a web-browser based thing, which I'm assuming (naive mode on) would be blocked from a fishing expedition on your machine by the browser sandbox - or does that sandbox allow free read access, but blocks (fingers devoutly crossed) from write access?
I used the AutoRip service three times on Friday - although I don't see an opt-out so I got to use the service by accident. “13” (Black Sabbath) and “Bula Quo” (Status Quo) were fine - and it was great to be able to listen to the albums without having to wait for the postman - but “Black Dog Barking” (Airbourne) the first disk was AutoRip'd but the second (bonus) disk was missing.
So my evaluation of AR was 10/10 to start with, but I'll knock off a point for the Airbourne issue above, another one off for the opt out, and another four for the issue that Saracen raises above. So overall 4/10 - bad show Amazon, good idea in theory, but implementation needs some work.
Well, I can see where Amazon are coming from with that ‘gotcha’. It's apparently aimed at the auto-rip equivalent of the long-standibg practice of buying an album, copying it and taking it back, and that is a practise going back to the days of LP's and the initial release of the audio cassette.
So I kinda sympathise with them on that. It's also quite possible it's required by their licencing deal.
What I don't much like is, basically, two things. First, it's buried in the T&C's, and I'd bet a very small proportion of users ever bother to read them. So I expect howls of anger if/when they start applying that. Second, that youcan end up paying more for the “free” MP3 version that the CD version. Why in hell would the MP3 version cost
more than the physical version in the first place? That strikes me as an outright con, right there.
Personally, I don't really give a damn. I've never bought an album from Amazon, and don't have any particular plans to start. My first choice is to buy locally, be that supermarket, or small owner-managed places, though the latter are getting harder to find.
Also, I'm an an age where an increasingly small proportion of “new” music appeals, and I really know where my old man was coming from with “turn that cacophony down, will you” when I was young. Sorry Dad, I should have been more considerate.
So, mainly I buy either classical stuff I haven't got, or to fill gaps in my personal back-catalogue of the “cacophony”.
And third, I increasingly find second-hand sources, including market stalks, rich veins to mine, as others seem to increasingly go digital only.
And fourth and finally, I'm not interested in Amazon's cloud services (or anyone elses), so will never sign up for cloud player. If I want to sync my music across various devices, I'm quite capable of doing it myself without letting nosy US corporates do it for me.
But I hope anyone that does use this service, and though it holds no appeal for me I can see why others might like it, does so eyes-open, and is aware of the issues.