Audiophiles will go to their graves praising the audio superiority of vinyl. And yes, vinyl sounds great, but you can't enjoy it in the car or on the bus. Until now. Well, sorta.
Amazon announced today that its AutoRip service is coming to vinyl. That's right -- buy a slab from Amazon and you'll get the MP3 for free. Cooler still, if you've ever bought vinyl from Amazon, you can download the MP3 to your Cloud Player library.
The service solves the biggest issue with buying analog music -- portability. Unless the album is bundled with digital versions like the latest offerings from Daft Punk and My Bloody Valentine, audiophiles had to purchase a digital copy as well if they wanted to hear it on the go.
The service expands the program Amazon introduced in January when it provided auto rips of CDs.
"We’re thrilled to extend this experience to vinyl records." Steve Boom, Vice President of Digital Music for Amazon said in a statement. "Many of our music customers are vinyl fans and it’s traditionally been very difficult to make digital versions of vinyl records—now customers can enjoy the albums they buy wherever they are, not just when they have access to a record player."
There is a caveat. For albums with tracks that appear only on the vinyl version, the record label or artist must supply those exclusive tracks to Amazon for downloading. For example, if you buy The Lions This Generation box set on vinyl with four tracks exclusive to the to the non-digital format, it's up to the artist and the label to supply Amazon with those tracks.
Still, this is a better solution than carrying a record player on the bus to hear Dark Side of the Moon.
