Amazon's new AutoRip feature doubles your music buying power

Have you heard about Amazon's new feature, AutoRip?

Here's what it means:  when you buy an AutoRip CD, you will be purchasing the actual CD as well as the download of the MP3 version.  So what, you say?

Well, this means a few things.

• You legally own both the CD as well as the digital MP3 version of the album.  This means you can plunk the MP3 right on your iPod and keep that for yourself, and gift the still-shrinkwrapped CD.  This effectively doubles your purchase power.
• Even if you have already purchased a bunch of CDs on Amazon in the past, if they qualify for AutoRip, you can retroactively download the MP3s, and get rid of the CD, whether you give it away or sell it.  Reclaim the space of all those ancient, dust-collecting CDs that you own.
• This is a huge time and effort saver, as most people automatically convert their CDs into digital MP3's as soon as they purchase them.  AutoRip, like the name says, will automatically rip those CDs for you.
• There are some cases in which the digital MP3 download version of an album actually costs more than the actual CD.  The AutoRip feature makes this price difference meaningless, since you are getting both the CD and digital versions at once. 
• No more waiting for the CD to be delivered...you get your music instantly.

Say I wanted to purchase the Les Miserables album.  Now, I really have no use for the CD, so normally, I would jump over to the Les Miserables MP3 download version, which is $18.99.  But if I bought the Les Miserables CD AutoRip version for $16.99, I'd get the CD, which I'd give to a friend as a gift, and keep the free AutoRip MP3 download version of it for myself.
I would actually:

1. save $2.00 on the digital version, 
2. save myself the effort of converting it to MP3, 
3. get my music right away and won't have to wait for the physical CD to arrive and 
4. have a pristine, still-shrinkwrapped CD to give away. Win-win-win-win.

Check out all the AutoRip CDs here.  And don't forget to check your past purchases to see if you bought any CDs that would qualify for AutoRip so that you can snag the digital versions of your past purchases.

HT: Frugal FilAm

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