Has Amazon stopped allowing the 30second sampling of digital music?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by TimM, Jul 26, 2020.

  1. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    maybe just Mp3?
     
  2. eric61

    eric61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Leandro, CA
    I think there is some confusion here between Amazon's sale of physical CDs vs. Amazon albums that also offer mp3 downloads and streaming.

    If an album on an Amazon product page offers mp3 downloads or streams there will be a clickable box next to the cover art that reveals a tracklist. This tracklist also applies to the physical CD but if you click on the AUDIO CD box there will be no tracklist! They removed the tracklists for ALL physical CDs back in August due to a computer problem and give varying answers to their suppliers and customers about if/when they will put them back. This is a serious shopping problem for anyone who wants to know what songs are on a given CD (and who doesn't?). It's particularly bad for anyone buying or selling a Various Artists compilation.

    Hundreds of thousands of albums don't offer mp3 or streaming formats especially those on smaller independent labels. And almost never on any Various Artists compilations. So you have no idea what songs are on any of those albums whether it's Elton John or a more obscure artist.

    I would like to strongly encourage those of you who like the physical CD format and want it to survive to contact Amazon customer service at (888) 280-4331 and tell them you can't buy unless you know what you're getting and to restore the track lists for ALL CDs. I just don't know how they expect people to buy a CD when there is no track list.
     
  3. Amazon really doesn't want to be in the CD selling business anymore. It's one of the big reasons why the American music labels have been killing off CD as quickly as possible.
     
    shaboo, TimM and Tim Lookingbill like this.
  4. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    And that explains the plethora of portable outdoor boombox brands on Amazon that only play through a BlueTooth streaming connection that requires one's cellphone to operate on a lot of them or at least just to pair when buying two to get a stereo effect.
     
    MikeInFla likes this.
  5. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    I had to rely on Discogs to provide the track lists which shouldn't be the case considering how many CD's I buy on Amazon. I just came out of an arduous CD search for top notch Verve recordings that started with me buying a sampler CD for $1 at a thrift store called "After Dinner Jazz 2" which listed a ton of gorgeously recorded jazz albums with Verve album numbers and titles I used to track down on Amazon.

    The most stiff arming experience in my retail buying ventures, but I finally got what I wanted and it's on its way....MUSIC GOLD! in CD format!
     
  6. TimM

    TimM Senior Member Thread Starter

    I suspect this is true and if it is it will indeed hasten the end of the CD.
     
    shaboo likes this.
  7. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    So I've been lamenting the loss of Autorip, but today I went a looked at my music library and to my surprise, many of my recent purchases were there, even though they do not (and did not) say 'Autorip' on the produce page.

    The current state of the ever-revising Amazon Music page no longer has 'Recently Added' but it does have 'Purchased,' which lists them by purchase date, starting with the most recent (so essentially the same thing).
     
    MikeInFla likes this.
  8. hoffmanuser2020

    hoffmanuser2020 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Steps:

    1. Pick an album.
    2. Click on the "Streaming" button.
    3. Enjoy 30-second samples.

    [​IMG]
     
    Comet01 and Mr Bass like this.
  9. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I donj't have any problem playing brief mp3 samples on Amazon if they are available. I just tried it and it worked fine. You have to click on the MP3 button on the listing and wait for the tracklisting to appear. Works OK in the US at least
     
  10. stricee

    stricee Forum Resident

    thanks for the info
     
  11. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    I forgot about this thread since I last posted. Here's an update.

    Amazon now provides 30 second samples which seem to load faster than before. And they fixed the problem with not showing all the used versions of a CD when clicking on used prices which now just provides a fly out menu listing with condition and vendor name instead of taking you to another page as they did before.

    Overall Amazon has really been improving a lot on its navigation design and speed.
     
  12. Jay as in me

    Jay as in me Active Member

    Location:
    buffalo ny
    I typed to tech support saying my buying of albums rill wane if this comtinures the more peple that let them know the better i hope.
     
    Michael likes this.
  13. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    that is true.
     
  14. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    You guys really think complaining to outsourced labour in India and other countries is going to make the corporation change?
     
    rockclassics likes this.
  15. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I just checked over at Amazon and I was able to hear a 30 second clip of an album...IT WORKS FINE!
     
  16. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    If they want to stop selling something, how will they care if you threaten to stop buying it from them. :doh:

    Only way..is if you also seek to support other competition that you CAN buy them from. :idea:
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2022
    KevinP likes this.
  17. LilacTeardrop

    LilacTeardrop "Roll It Over My Soul...and Leave Me Here"

    Location:
    U.S.
    Hmm, this is getting more curious. I'd found the work around when the problem arose a couple of years ago, if not this thread, I'm almost sure it was somewhere around here....which was to click on mp3 instead of cd; that did the trick. All well & good until about 3 weeks ago. I use google as my browser & wondering if that's what you use. *B/C I'm getting "Something went wrong. Please try one more time or contact customer service if the problem persists." Which is has & I did contact customer service. Several attempts & they'd switch me to Amazon music & I'd explain no, it's the site, not music streaming. Back & forth multiple times w/this. Then, they advise "clear your browser history, clear catche" biz - which, when it's w/one particular site, never clears the issue & I'm not having troubles anywhere else. It does seem odd, too, b/c this began occurring after a purchase, which shortly after, I rec'd e-mail about having a 90-day free trial subscription to Amazon music - which I didn't accept. Unfortunately, coincidentally w/in 2 days of this, I'd also been searching for a couple of weeks for a particular title which US Amazon site didn't have so I checked Amazon UK & had to do a new sign-in & create another password (I don't remember if that was b/c I didn't remember it since I stay signed on, on the US one. The 2 sites operate separately). I don't think that would've created problem, though, but ? I did explain that part, too, to Rep. Anyhow, last rep I spoke with said *they've been having problems w/Google (which I take that w/a grain of salt b/c I think they just want to get off call whether or not they've helped correct issue.) Thanks! :):tiphat:
     
    Michael likes this.
  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    there's always something strange with Amazon what I really dislike is their ever changing prices...it's like the stock market. It could vary greatly! It takes work to get the best price over there...
     
  19. Oelewapper

    Oelewapper Plays vinyl instead of installing it on the floor.

    You need this tool to navigate through the Amazon Exchange:
    https://camelcamelcamel.com/
     
    Michael likes this.
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Oelewapper likes this.
  21. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    My recent strangeness with Amazon is when I do a Google search naming the album and include mp3/Amazon, it'll take me to the right Amazon page which gives three media options of Streaming/Mp3/CD. Of course this is the CD page. I click on mp3 to get the samples to show up because they don't provide samples for CD and I get taken to a black page that says my browser is not supported and I must upgrade listing all browser's links to update so I can't listen to mp3 samples.

    I knew this was a glitch and to fix it I just entered the album title/artist name and 'mp3' in Amazon's search engine and I get a long list of individual songs naming the album artist on each one with a clickable 'Mp3' hot link. I click that and I'm given the mp3/Streaming page with all samples I can listen to.

    So it isn't my browser that's the problem. It's Amazon's search engine and Google not able to index the new hotlinks to mp3 samples. Or something like that. Who knows. I now have a work around. What a buggy site! Amazon needs to clean it up.
     
    TimM likes this.
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    Indeed...they need to do a lot of things better! but, that's what happens when they're on top...they forget who put them there...
     
  23. MikeMusic

    MikeMusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Surrey, England
    Remember Allmusic for 30 second clips guys
     
    LilacTeardrop likes this.
  24. Billy Infinity

    Billy Infinity Beloved aunt

    Location:
    US
    I assure you, we Indians are capable of passing on a message to someone else.
     
    Oelewapper and BluesOvertookMe like this.
  25. LilacTeardrop

    LilacTeardrop "Roll It Over My Soul...and Leave Me Here"

    Location:
    U.S.
    Thanks for posting that - That's the google glitch I was referring to several posts above - but, I am not getting that last direction which you are. What I get (as posted) is the screen pop-up w/ message "Something went wrong. Please try one more time or contact customer service if the problem persists." which, I also posted that when contacted, after speaking w/several reps, eventually one did advise that they've been having issues w/Google. Also posted, these issues on Amazon w/hearing the samples by clicking on CD that began a couple of years ago, the work-around had been clicking on mp3, which had been working for me up until about 3 weeks ago. (At least to my knowledge, others' somewhere around here were having that same issue beginning @ that time & that had been the fix.) But, it appears @Michael isn't having the issues either of us are encountering & is still able to, presently, be getting the sampling. His response to my post didn't go into which browser he uses, (rather, speaking to a different subject, which I had not raised, regarding pricing; I guess just pointing out Amazon issues in general) & no one else other than you & I @ present seems to be posting that info. either, so I'm not gaining any further insight other than your post which, even though not in reponse to mine, I'm glad to have some confirmation that someone else using Google is also experiencing this. (I guess you hadn't read my post since you quoted Michael's response to mine which didn't address this, but just about strange issues w/Amazon.)

    That is a viable option, but not always offered for all titles, esp. not so much for new releases where they might give samples of several tracks, not the entirety & none for pre-orders, which I purchase that way frequently. Another option is deep discount. Music | Free Shipping over $25 at DeepDiscount

    I often now just end up going to youtube. Thing is, though, I don't want to listen to whole songs when it's something I'm unfamiliar with &/or a new release or pre-order title I'm investigating as a possible purchase. I just want to hear a little of it, holding intitial listening in full to when I receive the CD. So, I'll just listen to 2 or 3 full tracks or listen to more & so it's more like sampling clips, just stop after maybe some seconds or a minute or so.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2022
    MikeMusic likes this.

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