Amazon, the online retailer has a new service that stores free digital versions of CDs bought via its store.
AutoRip, which is only available in the US, will automatically keep a digital copy of eligible CDs in a customer’s cloud storage account.
The company has drawn up a catalogue of 50,000 CDs that are eligible for AutoRip.
“When we picked those 50,000 titles we focused on having a substantial majority of our physical CD sales covered,” said Steve Boom, head of digital music at Amazon in a statement.
The catalogue has been compiled from the most popular albums over the last 15 years and includes hits such as “Dark side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson and “21” by Adele.
Any customer who has bought a CD in the catalogue from Amazon since the firm started trading in 1998 will be eligible to get a free MP3 copy of it. Amazon said it expects to create millions of CD copies.
The purpose behind the new venture is to make it much easier for people to build up a library of digital music, who had to otherwise rip the songs from physical CD’s themselves to create digital versions.
The Amazon Cloud Player can be accessed a web browser, as well as on Android phones, iPhones, Kindle Fire tablets and other devices.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to take market share from arch-rival Apple’s iTunes music store.
Customers will be able to access the music via Amazon’s Cloud Player on the web or via tablet and smartphone apps.
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