Amazon Makes it More Difficult

[THX1123]

I like to buy and listen to CDs and LPs. I buy some through Amazon. I buy directly from Artists and Labels when I can. For example, I’ve bought many Wire albums from the Wire store online, but I can’t buy Asia’s old Alpha album from Asia directly, so I buy a used copy from Amazon. It is fun to order from SST and Domino and Cherry Red and other labels too.

When I do buy new from Amazon it adds the albums to my Amazon Music. I can stream entire albums I’ve purchased at work commercial free. This has been a valuable thing to me.

Amazon has recently decided I can’t listen to my purchased albums in any order besides Shuffle (Shuffle is default now). For albums I've bought this somehow means the original sequence, and the album playback starts over if I pick any song besides the first one. This is to say I can no longer choose individual songs from albums I have purchased, or listen to them in any order I wish unless I pay to upgrade to Unlimited service. They want me to pay again to fully access what I have already own, and I must add that I've paid for Prime as well.

The services have been limited, and because I prefer an older model of music ownership they've put the most basic level of control behind a pay wall.

Amazon has also changed the search function for music. I used to be able to click on a band name in a CD or LP listing and it would take me to a page where I could browse all the band’s CDs and LPs. Now I am unavoidably dumped directly into the Amazon Music streaming/download page. This search service for physical media has been limited/eliminated.

I’m nearly certain consumer preference and service have nothing to do with these changes. These changes certainly do not provide greater service and/or value to me. I imagine none of this would matter if you consume music in a non-LP format, and only buy music online one song at a time. I suspect the changes are intended to change my behavior and move me farther from actual ownership and purchase of physical media, to a rental/subscription long-term revenue model.

The number of people still buying physical media is smaller than those buying downloads, sure, I get that...but do you agree that these changes are about changing my behavior and preferences towards selling me downloads and recurring charges to access them, not about providing better service or more choice?

 

[swervinbob]

So…you haven’t called some kind of customer service to see if you can make changes?

 

[imwjl]

I like to buy and listen to CDs and LPs. I buy some through Amazon. I buy directly from Artists and Labels when I can. For example, I’ve bought many Wire albums from the Wire store online, but I can’t buy Asia’s old Alpha album from Asia directly, so I buy a used copy from Amazon. It is fun to order from SST and Domino and Cherry Red and other labels too.

When I do buy new from Amazon it adds the albums to my Amazon Music. I can stream entire albums I’ve purchased at work commercial free. This has been a valuable thing to me.

Amazon has recently decided I can’t listen to my purchased albums in any order besides Shuffle (Shuffle is default now). For albums I've bought this somehow means the original sequence, and the album playback starts over if I pick any song besides the first one. This is to say I can no longer choose individual songs from albums I have purchased, or listen to them in any order I wish unless I pay to upgrade to Unlimited service. They want me to pay again to fully access what I have already own, and I must add that I've paid for Prime as well.

The services have been limited, and because I prefer an older model of music ownership they've put the most basic level of control behind a pay wall.

Amazon has also changed the search function for music. I used to be able to click on a band name in a CD or LP listing and it would take me to a page where I could browse all the band’s CDs and LPs. Now I am unavoidably dumped directly into the Amazon Music streaming/download page. This search service for physical media has been limited/eliminated.

I’m nearly certain consumer preference and service have nothing to do with these changes. These changes certainly do not provide greater service and/or value to me. I imagine none of this would matter if you consume music in a non-LP format, and only buy music online one song at a time. I suspect the changes are intended to change my behavior and move me farther from actual ownership and purchase of physical media, to a rental/subscription long-term revenue model.

The number of people still buying physical media is smaller than those buying downloads, sure, I get that...but do you agree that these changes are about changing my behavior and preferences towards selling me downloads and recurring charges to access them, not about providing better service or more choice?

Unfortunately you are in a small minority. Even artists who are using Apple and Spotify alternatives seem more and more on the bandwagon for newer distribution methods.

I cannot offer advice on swimming against such strong currents as big markets create, but can for sure say I've not had any problems with my old purchases working with Apple Music. The most difficult thing I've had to do with some tracks is just have them synchronized across devices.

Something about a lot of old releases that I like in the new way is not just the sync and ability to have the file present or not but the spatial audio remixes. Something not likely good for Amazon customers is how many of the 18,000 layoffs are in the non-retail and device and service areas.

 

[rcole_sooner]

I buy off Amazon, but I download the albums and add them to my phone and an USB stick in my truck.

They do make it harder and harder to download. Used to I could just download on my phone with the music app, but those are now encoded to only work with the Amazon music player.

So I have to download them on my PC and then copy them to my phone. Not that hard and have to do that anyways to get them on the USB stick. If you download them from outside the Amazon Music App on the PC, they are still not encoded. Hope that lasts.

 

[SRHmusic]

I'm with @rcole_sooner on this. Download the mp3s for your personal offline use, and use any player you want. Keep backups, too. This gives you some control in case Amazon stops supporting whatever access you have.
On that note, what standalone PC based apps do people recommend these days?
(Winamp is still around even, which was quite popular with my friends back in the early 2000s. Not sure if it's really supported or virus free, though.)
Or you can get a Sonos box for a home stereo, as well.

 

[sloppychops]

I had the Amazon premium service for awhile, but got fed up with it for various reasons. Changed to Spotify premium. It's much better. I think it's about $10 per month, but it's worth it to me. I've really gotten into some of the podcasts on there. Those alone are worth the price. "Deathbed Confessions" is great, BTW.

 

[unixfish]

What they really want you to do is purchase the streaming service, so you can just stream your song / album when you want it. Downloading / Owning is passe - all the kids just want to stream. I think they make more off streaming than sales.

 

[unixfish]

My new phone came with 4 free months of Amazon streaming. All I had to do was provide them a credit card and remember to cancel.

I never started my subscription. I've had trouble cancelling items like this in the past.

 

[bendercaster]

The version of Amazon music that came with Prime membership used to be my go to service. You couldn't listen to everything, but you could listen to a lot and even download that stuff for offline playing through the app, which was great for road trips along the coast where reception is spotty. But with the new model, all my downloaded music disappeared, including the stuff I actually bought. I haven't tried to redownload it yet. I do still prefer it over other "free" services because their are no ads, but I use it far less than I use to use it.

 

[THX1123]

So…you haven’t called some kind of customer service to see if you can make changes?

I've been on hold since late November.

 

[rcole_sooner]

I'm with @rcole_sooner on this. Download the mp3s for your personal offline use, and use any player you want. Keep backups, too. This gives you some control in case Amazon stops supporting whatever access you have.
On that note, what standalone PC based apps do people recommend these days?
(Winamp is still around even, which was quite popular with my friends back in the early 2000s. Not sure if it's really supported or virus free, though.)
Or you can get a Sonos box for a home stereo, as well.

On PC I just use Windows Media Player. For both playing and ripping. I've heard there are some much better apps, but that has always been sufficient for me.

On my phones over the years I've tried several including winamp, which I liked at one time. Don't remember why I gave it up ... I'm guessing it was having problems interpreting commands from my earbuds when I was running an all sweaty. For a lot of years I used the Samsung music app ... again nothing fancy but met my needs. My latest phone the Samsung music app no longer supports WMA music files. And I am too lazy to re-rip all my older WMA ripp'ed files. I've ended up switching to PowerAmp .. had to pay a small amount .. and it has it's issues. For example when I want to listen to all albums of an Artist, it won't just go to the next album. I have to manually start the next album. I like to listen to whole albums in the album song order, and most times I'll stick to one artist's collection of albums.

I may just have to go back to the Samsung Music app on my phone, it really met all my needs. And I no longer rip to WMA. I'd just have to re-rip maybe 50 or so albums.

 

[THX1123]

I know there are a number of solutions.

I wrote a book last year. In my dystopian future you have to pay annually for different subscription levels of citizenship. Three continuous years at Titanium franchise level are necessary to exercise that right. Any lapse in subscription and you start over.

 

[rcole_sooner]

The version of Amazon music that came with Prime membership used to be my go to service. You couldn't listen to everything, but you could listen to a lot and even download that stuff for offline playing through the app, which was great for road trips along the coast where reception is spotty. But with the new model, all my downloaded music disappeared, including the stuff I actually bought. I haven't tried to redownload it yet. I do still prefer it over other "free" services because their are no ads, but I use it far less than I use to use it.

It went to an encoded music folder, that is hidden. Even the music we bought. And it is not accessible outside the Amazon Music App.

I don't know how to get the unencoded versions back on the phone, but on the PC, just go to Amazon outside the music app, and go to your purchased audio, and you can download MP3 versions there. Even if you copy those to your phone, Amazon won't hide those.

At least so far.

 

[bottlenecker]

So…you haven’t called some kind of customer service to see if you can make changes?

Call? Like on a telephone? It'd be less painful to try to purchase all my music on 8-track.

 

[swervinbob]

Call? Like on a telephone? It'd be less painful to try to purchase all my music on 8-track.

I know. In my line of work I constantly have to either be on the phone with tech support or actually be tech support. It does suck, but sometimes it’s the only way.

 

[Edgar Allan Presley]

You might consider switching from Amazon to Bandcamp. I subscribe to Apple Music, but I also buy music via Bandcamp or direct from labels to support the artists. I'm a big fan of streaming, but I'm also a fan of musicians being able to eat. It's a lot easier in Bandcamp than Amazon to buy, download, and listen to music without subscribing to anything.

 

[tele12]

....but do you agree that these changes are about changing my behavior and preferences towards selling me downloads and recurring charges to access them, not about providing better service or more choice?

Yes, more money for them.

 

[Ed Driscoll]

Allow me to post my own cri de coeur to this thread. I uploaded all of my CDs to the Amazon cloud about ten years ago, when Amazon made a big splash that they were offering unlimited space for mp3s for a small monthly fee. It was a great service, and I used it all the time. Then they stopped allowing new uploads about four or five years ago. Only MP3 albums purchased from Amazon would be added to your collection. I had tons of albums still there, so no biggie. Then with this most recent update, I've lost content; mp3 albums that I didn't purchase from Amazon are only playable in shuffle mode, etc.

I uploaded the mp3 albums I play the most at the gym onto my iPad, and I can still play the albums I purchased from Amazon in their music app, as a temporary stopgap solution. But it sounds like I might be better off signing up with Spotify than looking for a new streaming service, and uploading everything once again?

 

[loco gringo]

I think Amazon is past trying to serve their customer's best interests / wants. Unfortunately, they took over the world before they divulged it to us.

 

[bottlenecker]

I know. In my line of work I constantly have to either be on the phone with tech support or actually be tech support. It does suck, but sometimes it’s the only way.

I used to do tech support 20 years ago and I know how it sucked then. I did the job as well as they'd let me. I had to call AT&T recently and I got to hear how far they've come. I'm not willing to do that again.