Finances & Money

Amazon Holiday Deals: Free or Cheap Music, Games and Books

Free Music

I like Christmas music, and I like free, so it’s a good thing Amazon has rolled out its 25 free MP3s in 25 days again this Christmas season. If you miss a day, you can still go back and download it.

Downloading MP3s from Amazon requires a very small installation of the “Amazon MP3 Downloader”. It’ll prompt you to install the first time, and then you can go back and get the song after it’s installed. It’s not a player like iTunes, just a small interface between the website and your PC.

The download process will seem like you’re purchasing the song, but it’s free. You need to have an Amazon account, which I think half the world must have by now, and you’ll only be prompted for a billing address (but no payment type). It took all of 10 seconds after I installed the app to download the song and begin listening.

Listening and Opening: The MP3 Downloader app has a button to “listen” which opens the song in your default player (Winamp for me), or you can open the folder where the MP3 files are stored and launch/move/rename/etc. from there. They’re your MP3s from now on.

Cheap Music

Not sure what music you want to buy? Amazon has a bunch of Best Music of 2009 lists for you to scroll through, listen to samples and decide to buy.

Want some even cheaper albums? Amazon normally has a selection of 50 albums for $5 each, but this month they have 100 albums for $5 each. And they’re not “no-names”. People like Lady Gaga, 50 Cent, Lenny Kravitz and Toby Keith are on the list.

Games

While not free, Amazon is offering one deal a day for 18 days on games across many consoles. Personally I’m a bit confused on which item is the “deal item”, but that’s the link I go to when I choose to shop the 18 Days deal. I really think this link is the Deal of the Day.

If you like playing games on your computer, then Amazon has great deals on games downloads, and they even let you try out the game before you buy.

Books

And if you’re a book lover, or just want something to read while you get away from the family for a bit, Amazon has a bunch of lists (like they did with music) for the best books of 2009. Please tell me Twilight isn’t on the list…please.

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