I just purchased Random Access Memories by Daft Punk on physical CD and was informed by Amazon that I could immediately download the album as MP3’s to iTunes. I thought ‘hmm, that makes life a little easier I guess…’ and it wasn’t until today when I realised the full ramifications on Amazon’s new AutoRip service. I went onto their Cloud Player to get hold of the MP3’s and realised that most of the back-catalogue of CD purchases that I have made going years back are now available to me to listen to on the player without me having to upload the MP3’s I may (or may not) have burned for iTunes. That’s a good thing. Not only that but it turns out that some generous soul at Amazon has decided that anyone who bought the original CD of Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys is due a copy of the 2009 remaster on MP3 plus the bonus CD2 full of remixes. So they allegedly don’t pay all the tax they should and contributed to the demise of the high street record store, but at least now and again I get free stuff! I won’t mention the Amazon Vine programme at this point as it just wazzes people off…
As for the Daft Punk album, it’s too early for me to pass judgement. I was vaguely impressed that they have gone for a more retro sound, a little worried about the amount of featured artists and happy that the auto-tune / robo-voice is still in the mix. Get Lucky was on constant rotation while I was on holiday and at first I hated it and now I like it, so it’s a fair bet I will grow to love this album a lot (and it hasn’t even arrived yet). Ah… the digital age.
couchmagpie 