[update after letter - 2-17-2010]Hello,
I want to voice an opinion about Amazon's policy of not allowing customers to re-download MP3s (and UnBox videos? I think?) that have been purchased. I hope that Amazon will seriously consider changing this policy. I find it very frustrating that I can re-download my purchases made in the itunes store (go Apple!) but not from Amazon (of whom I am a huge fan, and a decent client).
I have to give Amazon major kudos for the way Kindle material is made so easily accessible. I also have a NOOK (professional interest - I am a librarian) and can honestly and professionally say that you guys are doing the better job. The Kindle is simpler to use, easy to re-download, easier access to dictionary, backing-up-of-library indefinitely, launches ebooks faster that the Nook. The Nook may improve (or grow on me) but until both of those things happen: Kindle. Is. My. Hero.
However. This block against re-downloading other digital material has made it a matter of personal (and professional - I am responsible for all the purchasing of a small school library with a generous materials budget) financial policy that I will no longer make any digital purchases that do not allow a re-download option. While I am just one person expressing this frustration and action to Amazon, I am sure there are many more like me out there.
You could offer the analogy of purchasing a good old-fashioned paper & binding book: of course it has no "re-download" option. That is a completely different medium, though, and would require human effort and raw materials to reproduce. Digital material requires precious little of that, if any at all.
I have referenced [included in original correspondence] a purchase of mine as one example of music that I'd love to download again. Yes, you recommended that a back-up be made. That is not the point I am trying to make though. Had I purchased the same music from Apple's iTunes store, I would never need to make a back-up. As a consumer - that is a better investment.
Yours Sincerely,
Laura M. B. Hines, M.Ed; MLIS
2-14-2010 Update: Amazon usually gets back to me within a day or so after I email a query to them. I haven't heard any kind of response yet. I wonder if that means anything at all.
2-17-2010
Amazon got back to me with the following reply. I am glad to see they will make exception to their policy in some cases, and also glad they say they are paying attention to feedback such as mine. Whether that will ultimately translate into a better policy in general, who knows?
Hello from Amazon.com.
From your email, I understand your frustration.
Please note that Amazon MP3 files are only available for download at the time of purchase. We display information about the items you've purchased from the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads store in Your Media Library so you can keep track of what you've bought and discover similar items that may be available. However, the files are not stored there and cannot be downloaded again after purchase.
Because you can only download an MP3 file once upon purchase, we encourage you to make back-up copies of your MP3 Music files to ensure you will always have access.
However, we do exception to this policy and provide access to the MP3 downloads lost due to hard drive crash or other reasons.
Moreover, I've passed your feedback along to the Amazon MP3 Music team. It is always important for us to hear how customers react to all aspects of shopping at Amazon.com. Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.
If you have any issues with your MP3 downloads, please do let us know. We'll be happy to help you troubleshoot further. Please visit the following link to provide the information we
requested:
From your email, I understand your frustration.
Please note that Amazon MP3 files are only available for download at the time of purchase. We display information about the items you've purchased from the Amazon MP3 Music Downloads store in Your Media Library so you can keep track of what you've bought and discover similar items that may be available. However, the files are not stored there and cannot be downloaded again after purchase.
Because you can only download an MP3 file once upon purchase, we encourage you to make back-up copies of your MP3 Music files to ensure you will always have access.
However, we do exception to this policy and provide access to the MP3 downloads lost due to hard drive crash or other reasons.
Moreover, I've passed your feedback along to the Amazon MP3 Music team. It is always important for us to hear how customers react to all aspects of shopping at Amazon.com. Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.
If you have any issues with your MP3 downloads, please do let us know. We'll be happy to help you troubleshoot further. Please visit the following link to provide the information we
requested:
As for the download issues with Amazon... This has been a point of contention with my self and co-workers that discuss the issues surrounding digital content, particularly for music. We're huge music fans here and we've used all kinds of services that provide MP3 format music. We advocate this because it gets away from digital rights management and give us more freedom, especially if the DRM wing of a music retailer fails or the entire unit fails rendering your music useless unless you already have it stored on a device such as your iPod (in the case of Apple). There are draw backs to every service. Yes, Apple allows you to "redownload" your music, but unless they've changed their policy recently and if I remember correctly, they have to do some kind of purge or something to that effect and then allow you to download your previous historic purchases (of whats available that is). They don't like doing it, but it is a part of their policy. Now, back to Amazon, well, they are unfortunately treating your digital downloads as if they were some other tangible product purchased from their store. They could argue that their policy is right, but I don't think so. We've seen all kinds of arguments pro and con for policies like Amazons. Some of the pro's that stick out include the fact that Amazon must maintain the storage and the bandwidth that the music is stored on and downloaded through. So, you're not only paying for the song, you're paying for their infrastructure. I don't quite buy that as they should be investing in that anyway at little cost to the user. So denying a redownload, for free is poppycock in my opinion. Question though, if they offered redownloads at a fraction, say, 25 cents per; would you download that music again?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments, Terrell, they offer more food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the 'extra bandwidth' that might be necessary for the holding company to maintain. All they are really maintaining is a _record_ of my purchase...if I want to re-dl, then I assume there is a way to activate that download permission, and that would use extra bandwidth, during the actual download. (Am I making sense here?)
Regarding your question:
Question though, if they offered redownloads at a fraction, say, 25 cents per; would you download that music again?
I would be willing to pay a minor 're-download' fee. That is completely fair and appropriate, I think.