Amazon has midnight promotion, gives away all its music

By Paul Smith

So there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Unless by lunch, you mean MP3 downloads from Amazon. In which case, there is. Or was.

At the dead of midnight last night, HUKD member Dumpling decided to download some music from Amazon for her sister. She completed the transaction and noticed she hadn’t been charged. So placed a second order, and that went through for free, too. After several users experimented, they deduced that Amazon was giving away £10 worth of free music with every order – so if the order was worth less than £10, it was free.

picture 13 Amazon has midnight promotion, gives away all its music

Soon HUKD users were buying up dozens of albums, receiving the order confirmation by emails and downloading them without consequence. Dumpling’s post turned into a deal and soon everyone was at it.

But surely Amazon will come chasing people for their money? Um, no. Users were allowed to create new accounts with dummy details, and without having to specify a payment method. The “offer” only appeared to be UK specific, though that didn’t stop one user in New Zealand creating a UK proxy and swiping eight albums.

Five hours later, it was all over. Amazon had seemingly been cleaned out of several thousand pounds worth of MP3s, and HUKD members dozed off in the twilight, satisfied at their lot in life.

Thanks to HUKD member Jah

Tags: amazon, hot uk deals
Posted in Insane deals June 10th, 2009 | 19 Comments

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19 Responses to “Amazon has midnight promotion, gives away all its music”

Posted by Ian | June 10th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Are those files still illegal still? I don’t know? Otherwise they might as well have just downloaded the albums elsewhere.
Posted by wombat | June 10th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

@Ian: People might have broken the Amazon Ts&Cs in setting up ‘dummy’ accounts but I can’t see how that would make the legitimately purchased downloads illegal
Posted by jah | June 10th, 2009 at 6:58 pm

I can’t see why they would be illegal – and I’d expect the artists will have to get their cut (at Amazon’s expense). Its just another misprice/promotional error – but with the exception that they didn’t have chance to backtrack and cancel orders like most other misprices!
Posted by Uncle Tom | June 10th, 2009 at 8:56 pm

Waste of time subscribing to the BW RS feed, why didn’t you lot wake me up at 1am to get all these freebies?
Posted by Andy | June 10th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

Makes more sense to get them from an honest illegal source such as TPB in the first place.
Posted by Dumpling | June 10th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Sorry Uncle Tom and all those who missed out. Was a fun night had by all. Big thanks to Amazon.
Posted by Jill | June 10th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

Andy, no it doesn’t as Amazon gives you legal downloads whereas TPB doesn’t.
Posted by Lumoruk | June 10th, 2009 at 11:18 pm

In this case I think it WOULD have been better as suggested to download from TPB or elsewhere, Amazon will have to pay all the artists loyalties. I’m sure you’ll all stop gloating when Amazon go into administration.
Posted by Tizer | June 11th, 2009 at 8:34 am

Or go to bed at a reasonable time, wake up at 9 am after a good nights sleep and download the albums from ‘elsewhere’…

Why shop for albums at 1am!?
Posted by chrisg. | June 11th, 2009 at 8:45 am

You’re all kidding yourself if you don’t consider this theft. Double standards!
Posted by Francis Rossi | June 11th, 2009 at 8:58 am

Nothing’s illegal until you’re caught for it.
Posted by MinstrelMan | June 11th, 2009 at 8:59 am

you fuckin bunch of viking pillagers, you!
Posted by Nobby | June 11th, 2009 at 9:45 am

So what’s the difference between a legal and an illegal copy?
Posted by The Real Bob | June 11th, 2009 at 10:24 am

I was down the pub watching the rugby, and my poor head hurts today, but I missed all this free album business.
Posted by NigelG | June 11th, 2009 at 10:25 am

@Nobby – The cleanliness of your own conscience.
Posted by Matt Beeching | June 11th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

Don’t think I would have had the heart to do it.
Poor old Amazon. What did they do to deserve pillaging?
Posted by Deal Attack - Amazon 29p albums NOW! | BitterWallet | June 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm

[...] A few days ago, someone at Amazon pressed the wrong buttons in the wrong order and scores of keen-eyed HotUKDeals readers bagged themselves loads of free album downloads. [...]
Posted by 5 UK consumer pricing errors we will always remember | BitterWallet | July 2nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm

[...] behemoth was selling some albums for 29p each (just shortly after a loophole HUKDers found on free amazon album downloads) The artists involved (Calvin Harris, James Morrison, the Yeah Yeah Yeas, and MGMT) saw sales [...]
Posted by muppet | July 6th, 2009 at 2:11 am

this free download wasnt illegal at all.

its a legitimate site
there was no payment method whatsoever. it just would not let you pay
amazon were contacted, they never got in touch to say ‘please dont download the albums’ it took them 9 hours i think? or 7 to rectify the problem.
the artists will still get their cut from amazon, whereas TPB dont pay out. thats illegal.
when you went to purchase the album, all you see is 9.99 has been deducted as a gift voucher from amazon.
so maybe they might have held a legitimate midnight promo?
dont justify your illegal pirate bay downloads by saying we who downloaded from amazon are the same. its totally different