Amazon Auto Rip Feature Provides CD Buyers With Additional MP3 Album

Amazon wants to make sure that CD buying customers are given access to their albums online, and the company’s Auto Rip feature makes that happen.

Announced on Thursday, the AutoRip feature allows customers to receive digital copies of new purchases for more than 50,000 albums. The program also offers AutoRip copies of CDs customers have purchased over the last 15 years, a timetable that coincides with the launch of Amazon’s Music Store.

Customers curious to know if their albums warrant an Auto Rip copy can search for the Auto Rip logo found beside each album. Those purchases are then added to the customer’s Cloud Player where they can be played back or downloaded at a high 256kbps bitrate.

Amazon is providing the storage space for your AutoRip CDs at no charge, which means your Amazon storage limit is not affected by the company’s new program.

The company will auto add any albums purchased since 1998 if they are currently part of the accepted Auto Rip CDs. Those albums will then be playable via any Cloud supported device such as tablets, smartphones, and PCs.

The Auto Rip program is a nice complement to the Amazon scan-and-match program, which also helps users add music to their Cloud Player.

CD sales might not be as hot as they once were, but this type of program might help spur sales as customers can now purchase a CD, give it to a friend or family member, and then listen to their own MP3 copy of songs via the Amazon Cloud player.

Will this type of program lure you away from Apple’s iTunes?