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.
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I just downloaded a Shins album and the horrible Amazon Downloader crashed for no apparent reason (2 prior albums purchased downloaded with no issue) in the middle of the download. As you mention there is a one time download limit and I have yet to hear back from “customer service.”
I guess I’m going back to downloading iTunes Plus albums only or ripping the CD. I’m done with them.
Jeremy,
Sorry to hear about the problem. Fortunately, my experience with Amazon customer service was (as usual) good. They got back to me within a few hours both times, and reset the download count on my purchases so that I could try again.
Best of luck!
Call me “less than technically adept,” but I find the Amazon Downloader to be an utter catastrophe. A superfluous corporate branding exercise that needlessly frustrates users. I tried the Help page instructions after a download repeatedly went belly up, no dice.
And this is from an Amazon addict!
I will attempt to fiddle with proxy settings — never woulda guessed that, so thanks!
And hopefully, Amazon Customer Service will respond speedily as you say. Thanks again for the helpful post.
I have been downloading songs from Amazon a lot lately and have so far found that 3 (that I have discovered so far) skip. I don’t know whether it’s a problem with the file they offer, or whether this sort of thing can happen during download. I do use the amazon downloader, without any apparent problems. It would sometimes freeze and I would pause the download and then start it again and that would seem to fix it (unless that’s what caused my file corruption). I’ve e-mailed them about it, so we’ll see what they say.
I have encountered a problem, I download a song using the Amazon Downloader and it will not play. When I look at the properties or try to open the file it says MP3_REF=File in gray below the song name. What is up with that?
I’ve downloaded several songs successfully from Amazon.com, some without their downloader and some with. I’ve only had problems with 2 of them. The problem on both was skips throughout the song. One finally worked after several tries, but now I’m stuck on one that turns out bad (lots of “skips”) everytime I try to download it. And the skips are in different parts of the song on each download, so I’m guessing it’s not a defective MP3 on their end. Anyone found out why this happens?
By the way, I make sure to save the URL of the order page for each download. That way I can go back to that page if need be to download it again …and again …and again. So far I haven’t had a problem with being limited to the number of “tries” I can attempt with a particular download.
@Ken: I’ve not encountered the skipping problem, so no guess as to why that happens. And saving that order page is a good idea. I typically bookmark them in a TMP folder, then delete the bookmarks once I’ve verified that I can play the item.
having a Samsung Omnia in lieue of Iphones shortcomings I invested in a FAT microSD card and needed some mp3s. Being a voracious itunes user feeding several pods I decided to give Amazon Mp3s a try.
Ouch! I installed the downloader and 1 clicked away, I was impressed with the queueing of purchases and equaly so as it proceeded to download 10 or so albums,
after a 99 track Mozart album had taken 3 hours over my Vodafone mobile broadband which runs at a fair speed I decided to let Girls Alouds greatest Hits thru. The shorter tracks meant that was onto my system successfully. I felt I should give my laptop harddrive a break and went into helpfiles to make sure I could pause (even close the mp3 downloader) and resume later. THE FOLLOWING MORNING I reopened mp3 downloader and was grateful to see list queued up again. It automatically started to download first track but RETURND ‘Download no longer available. Contact Customer Services.
I submitted my phone number and amazingly as it says on the tin my mobile rang and a customer services rep from the Philipines was straight on the line.
I long windedly had to give each individual order number to her but finally she said open mp3 downloader and you can access albums again.
I started downloader but GOT SAME ERROR MESSAGE!
The downloader had previously placed tmp track files in correctly named album folders in the Vista MUSIC folder. So what to do now? It was a fair outlay financially so don’t want to write it off! I fear itunes has an enormous edge with their abiltiy to search for purchases that have yet to be downloaded. Customer services seemed to be on the case and did invite me to retry but my overall impression has to leave an unsavoury taste in the mouth.
At time of writing mp3 downloader wont even load the outstanding downloads list anymore!
Good luck. buyer beware.
Downloaded tracks do play correctly though.
hello i bought last night a mp3 album and i cant download it, and im really upset with the hole system because i didnt even get a link . the amazon mp3 player i have but still didnt work. any ideas what i can do? i wrote to the customer service now to complain.
I don’t know if this is the place that can help me, but tonight I ordered THE PRAGUE SESSIONS of Peter, Paul & Mary. If I paid for it I am cross, because one song only seems to have downloaded.
as I explained a moment ago, only one song of the Prague sessions seems to have downloaded. Have I been charged for them?
Now I have received 2 songs, so perhaps they just come slowly. sorry