Amazon Digital Music

I have almost completely gave up on buying music downloads, instead I almost always buy a CD. Most of my recent purchases have been through the artists own websites or from the merchandise stalls at venues. 
 
So tonight I decided to buy a download from Amazon.   It seems they have gone out of their way to out do iTunes in the inconvenience stakes. Amazon always used to be so easy, not anymore!  First they try to ram their streaming service "Prime" down your throat, you have to go searching to actually buy things!
 
Once purchased you are supposed to be able to down load a ZIP file containing the songs. I tried 3 browsers, did not work on any of them so I had to install the Amazon Music Library program to get my hands on my purchase. I finally managed to download the songs though I have yet to find them on my hard drive. Meanwhile the “app” is trying to encourage me to use Prime and use up my band width streaming every other album I have every bought from them (including CDs by the look of it.)
 
Good job all this crap is installed on my old Vista PC.

Maybe it was a glitch but the regular download resolutely refused to work. Once installed the program downloaded the files OK.

Maybe I am getting pestered about Prime because we have had a 12 month trial. In the beginning it was handy for free postage but its getting more annoying and I won't be renewing it in a week or two when it expires. The frustration has died down now but I still feel they are trying to push their streaming on me.

They would not even let me stop the free Prime subscription.

Rain
 
They seem to be adding options and to try to make everything some kind of online event that needs to be shared on social media and all. Me, I would like a "if it ain't broke..." option.

Thats pretty much the way I see it.

Used to be the Amazon Music Downloader, now it's Amazon Music which handles Prime music, downloading MP3's you've bought and also accessing / uploading to your cloud-based music account, including any MP3's you have which were not purchased on Amazon.  However, the music downloader is still available if you would prefer to use that.
 
I've never had any issues personally, I am a Prime member but was using their cloud services way before that.  I've only ever bought one 'digital' (i.e. MP3) album, ever.  If I really want some music I'll get the CD (if possible, auto-ripped on Amazon), then rip it and therefore have access to it more or less wherever I am.
 
I've not really had any problems with using Amazon's music services/software, other than the (new) Amazon Music software's rather unintuitive interface.  However, they're hardly alone in providing software with a crap interface.
 
 

except that spotify does not pay the artists whose music they stream, crap.

Well, allegedly, no matter the percentage, streaming doesn't seem to be that much of a source of income for musicians. 
 
Me, I'd pay $30 an album if it meant that the production values go back to what they once were. 
 
But since albums are often even less expensive than they were when I was growing up in the 80's, and people are not even bothering to buy them anymore, this isn't going to happen any time soon... We get what we refuse to pay for.
 

Pretty much ALL the music I've purchased over tha past 5 years has been via Amazon. MP3 purchases were far from convenient, and sometimes required a couple retries. I really don't bother with MP3s anymore unless I just want one song.
 
Instead, I prefer to buy used CDs and rip them myself. That way I've got a hardcopy backup, and a copy to keep in the car. The price is usually the same as, if not less than, an album download.
 
A slight pang of guilt, though, knowing the artist gets nothing from my transaction. I reckon somebody will make up the difference for me when they buy a $100 concert ticket and a T-shirt.

On a sidetone - Even though in itself, the experience of listening to a vinyl record can be gratifying on many levels, the pragmatic in me sides with digital media.
 
That being said, I think that, no matter how hard they try and package them, CD's - as a physical support - suck. Not only do they have no personality, but from unwrapping to trying to remove the actual CD from it's jewel case w/o breaking anything, working with CDs seem to be an exercise in inconvenience.
 
The gratifying aspect of unpacking a vinyl, the smell of it, the static when you pulled the actual disc from its paper sleeve... If CD's offered anything similar in terms of experience, I might no be so prone to rip and store them.
 
 

i've had several people download my new album from Amazon....
and no one has mentioned any issues at all.
 
i have an amazon account as well,
and store a lot of my purchased tunes on the amazon cloud,
and stream them whenever i want to listen,
again,
never any issues.
 

Sharke - wow vinyl from the Library - I had forgotten about that - you must look a lot younger in your photo than you really are!! Well unless you started listening to music and going to the library at a very young age!!
Nigel