How do I import Amazon MP3s with Banshee and the new Amazon Cloud Player?

Banshee's Amazon MP3 Import extension until recently allowed seamless importing of songs purchased from Amazon MP3. It did this by a)opening .amz files and using them to connect to and download the purchased files from Amazon's servers, and b) using hooks in Banshee's built-in browser to automatically recognize and open the .amz files when clicked on in the browser.

However, recently this functionality stopped working. Banshee will display Contacting Server in the lower left hand corner for a little while and then stop.

Furthermore opening the Amazon Cloud Player in the Banshee browser or any other browser on a Linux system to manually download the .amz file now results in the message:

On Linux systems, Cloud Player only supports downloading songs one at a time. To download your music, deselect all checkboxes, select the checkbox for the song you want to download, then click the "Download" button.

How can I get around this and import my purchased music into Banshee as I used to?

This is not a technical problem. Banshee is still able to open .amz files and use them to download purchased music. However this problem results from a decision by Amazon to unilaterally restrict all browsers with linux user agent strings from being able to download .amz files.

Luckily there is one immediate workaround, and a couple avenues for further action as well.

Quick and dirty workaround:

1. Install the User Agent Switcher extension for Firefox. Any other user agent switcher/browser combination should work as well, I just have not tested them.
2. Use the user agent switcher to switch your user agent string to IE 8. You can add the user agent switcher icon to your toolbar by right clicking the Firefox toolbar area and clicking Customize.
3. Authorize this pseudo-browser for use with Amazon Cloud player by clicking this link. This tricks Amazon Cloud Player into thinking that you have already installed Amazon MP3 downloader--setting a cookie that will allow you to download .amz files instead of being prompted to install Amazon MP3 downloader first.
4. Use Amazon Cloud Player to select tracks and click Download.
5. Use Banshee to open the downloaded .amz file and it will automatically download and import the songs!

Possibilities for more permanent solutions:

The fact that the above workaround can be used proves that this is not a technical issue but rather a choice by Amazon to restrict certain browser user agent strings from being able to download .amz files. Therefore there a two paths towards a more streamlined fix for this problem.

1. Modify the user agent string for Banshee's built in browser and then authorize it using the above link. I don't know how to go about doing this but I'm hoping maybe something can write another answer for this.

2. Write Amazon asking them to explain this change and detailing it's negative effects on you. Here is the message I sent them:

   Hello,

   I have been a regular customer of the Amazon MP3 store for awhile now. Whenever I heard about a new album I would preview and buy the album from your store. Part of the reason for this was the great Amazon MP3 integration with Banshee Media Player (http://banshee.fm). I could browse Amazon, preview songs, and import my music all from within Banshee Media Player. Having to use a third party client to download music that I have purchased has always been a very big turn off for me--hence, I don't like using Google Play, and before I discovered Banshee's Amazon integration I didn't like purchasing music from Amazon either.

   With my most recent purchase however I was very displeased to discover that Banshee's automatic import of songs purchased from Amazon MP3 was no longer working. After a little research I determined that the cause of this was that Amazon had decided to lock out any browsers with a Linux user agents strings from being able to download multiple songs. If I authorized and used a browser with a Windows user agent to download the .amz file then I was able to open that file with Banshee and import the songs normally. I understand the need to authorize devices for use with the cloud player, but the decision to unilaterally lock out linux machines from being able to download .amz files seems completely arbitrary, and to this customer is a very disappointing development.

   I'm not going to threaten to boycott Amazon MP3, in all likelyhood I will continue to purchase MP3 albums from your service. However, from this point on I will likely only purchase the promotionally priced albums, I will now have no incentive to buy the full priced albums (where you make the most money) from your service rather than another service--especially those which have better support for linux.

   What really bothers me about this is that it is not a technical issue. I am not expecting you to support another operating system, additional software, or to make a version of the Amazon MP3 downloader for linux. It is a matter of Amazon--inexplicably--choosing to restrict via user agent all browsers running on Linux systems from being able to use features that they otherwise are fully capable of using. To me this seems not only unreasonable but also a poor business choice and not what I expect from Amazon in terms of how you treat your customers.

   Furthermore, I am disappointed by the lack of an explanation behind why this decision has been made. Linux users are greeted by a message apologizing that support isn't offered, but given that support was previously available, and applications such as Banshee are still technically able to use the service if they use another browsers user agent key to download the .amz while, I believe that we deserve an explanation of why this change has been made.

   Thank you for your time reading this. What I would like is both for you to please convey my comments along the appropriate channels and I would also like to receive a response stating, 1) why this change was made, and 2) if there are any plans to re-enable Linux devices in the future. Even if the answers to these two questions are not what I hope to hear, a thorough response addressing these issues would likely keep me a loyal customer of Amazon. I would however be rather disappointed with a generic response that I could have found myself in an FAQ. As such, please take your time if you need to ask around to find out more about this situation before responding. Thank you again for your time.

   Best,

   Austin Dempewolff

Note: I've written this answer up quickly to try and help those who are also facing this problem. I would highly welcome other answers that are better illustrated and/or provide alternative workarounds! I'd prefer to accept a better written/illustrated answer than this one!

When you buy the album, you'll get to a page with a final acknowledgment of the purchase. In that page there's a link ("download your music now") to an .amz file that you can open in Banshee.

I haven't found (or looked very hard) at a way to get that file again once you close that page, but the method above should be enough to get the music in a way close enough to the old/better way without messing around with an agent switcher.