Two issues with Amazon MP3 Music Downloads

I just attempted to make my first purchase from Amazon’s new DRM-free music download service. I say “attempted” because, while Amazon was successful in billing me for my purchase, I was not successful in downloading the music for which I had paid. Two days later, I’m without the album that I purchased, for two primary reasons.

The first stumbling block presented itself because I lack the ability to think as quickly as I type (or click) early in the morning. I hit “Cancel” when prompted with the download dialog. I didn’t think much of it, and attempted to download the album again. No longer an option. Why? Because, according to Amazon’s system, I had already downloaded the album. And by “downloaded” I mean “clicked on the ‘Download’ button.” This caught me off guard.

Amazon’s Music downloads are already DRM-free–DRM being the one thing stopping the less-than-technically-adept from casually sharing iTunes purchases with friends–so attempting to control distribution via a one-time download policy seems like a silly approach. Users planning to illegally share Amazon MP3s are almost certainly not going to do so by either continuing to download new copies onto friends’ systems, or by providing friends with private account login information. They’re going to . . . wait for it . . . put the files on a USB drive, or maybe even a writable CD.

Bottom line: I’m not suggesting that every purchase be made available for download indefinitely, but a three-download limit or 24-hour window might just be a welcome convenience for a lot of users (as well as some Amazon customer service representatives).

The second issue is related to the Amazon MP3 Downloader, which they suggest that users install to make downloads “fast and easy.” Installation of the MP3 Downloader is a no-brainer. Operation is as simple as choosing the MP3 Downloader application as the file handler for downloads, as opposed to saving files via the standard operating system (or browser) dialog. I figured that I’d give it a shot, in the event that there ended up being some type of hidden benefit in terms of download management (I.e., the ability to pause and restart, or detect failed downloads). Turns out that it had the opposite effect.

I almost always use the ‘webs via a proxy–it’s a Good Idea. Unfortunately, the Amazon MP3 Downloader fails to detect any system-wide proxy configuration, nor does it provide a mechanism for manual configuration. This is all well and good if you either warn users ahead of time, or document the limitations of the tool. Unfortunately, it appears that Amazon has done neither. As of this writing, their troubleshooting guide contains no mention of proxy-related limitations (although, interestingly enough, the Google result set for ‘amazon mp3 downloader proxy’ places the relevant Amazon support page at the top of the list, and the excerpt does contain the word ‘proxy.’ Sure enough, some type of proxy-related guidance once existed!).

Bottom line: Let one of your developers spend an afternoon implementing some type of proxy support, or warn users ahead of time so that they can either find/use a proxy-free connection, or simply avoid using the downloader altogether.

On a positive note (these are, after all, relatively minor complaints, and I’m otherwise quite pleased with the offering): It appears that the Amazon customer service team is going to simply ‘reset’ the download status of this particular purchase, and I’m going to get my music. So, no harm done. Although I’d obviously prefer that these issues be addressed, primarily so that Amazon’s non-technical users might be spared a little time and frustration.