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I just bought a new album from Amazon and found out they want me to download and install some custom program just to download some mp3's. This does not make sense to me from a technical standpoint - I purchase and download albums and songs from other vendors without a problem - usually they will provide a zip file if you get an entire album, or a plain mp3 if you buy one song. What is so special about Amazon's MP3's that they won't transfer over normal http?

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This is what Amazon has to say about it

Why is the Amazon MP3 Downloader required to download albums but not songs? The Amazon MP3 Downloader queues up all content from an album for download, saves them all to a specific folder on your computer, and can import them automatically to your iTunes or Windows Media Player library. The Amazon MP3 Downloader offers customers the simplest way to download and import multiple content in one easy step.

Amazon mp3 download FAQ

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That answer gives one small possible benefit of using the downloader. It doesn't give a reason for why this is required, or why the obvious alternative (downloading the files directly from the browser) is not supported. – Peter May 24 '12 at 2:10
However, this is probably as close to an answer as I'll get, as it looks like it is probably a marketing reason and not a technical one that they require it. – Peter May 24 '12 at 2:15
I am sure it has to do with DRM – Moab May 24 '12 at 15:30

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