If you look hard enough, you can find pretty much anything you want on Amazon. The world’s biggest e-commerce platform offers hundreds of millions of products and counting. In addition, Amazon is continuously branching out and conquering new industries.
Today, Amazon offers a wide variety of digital services, software, and apps. The selection might not be as wide as that of physical products, but there are all kinds of useful digital downloads on Amazon. Let’s take a look at some of the main ones.
Games, Software, and Online Courses
Amazon features dedicated stores for some of the world’s most popular programs, games, courses. You can access these stores from both Mac and PC and browse the numerous categories of digital downloads. Once you’ve downloaded a game or software, you can install it right away if your computer supports it. In addition, you can download them through your mobile device’s browser.
As far as payment goes, the 1-click payment method is set by default for digital downloads. If you want to turn it off, you can go to Payment Summary and click on the Change links before you complete your purchase. As you know, bank and checking accounts are not accepted for any purchase on Amazon in the US, which includes digital downloads.
Amazon Appstore
It may not be top of mind like Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store, but Amazon also has its own app store. It features apps and games that are compatible with:
- Fire tablet
- Fire TV
- Some Android devices
- Some BlackBerry devices
Amazon has pledged to support the Amazon Appstore despite the Fire devices have more or less flamed out.
It features thousands of free and paid apps and games available in the US and more than 200 other countries and regions. For purchasing apps and games, you can use your default Amazon payment method or Amazon Coins. At the moment, only Fire Tablets, Android, and BlackBerry OS support Amazon Coins.
You can buy Coins from within the Appstore or get them if you download certain apps and games. You can spend them on apps and games but not Kindle Books. You also can’t:
- Buy subscriptions
- Redeem Coins for cash
- Redeem Coins for gift cards
- Spend Coins outside the Amazon Appstore
Digital Services and Content
Amazon offers a wide variety of content that you can download to their dedicated apps and services. Over the years, Amazon has managed to compete with the other big players in the entertainment industry with its streaming and download services.
The examples include Amazon Unlimited Music and Prime Music. Amazon Prime members have instant access to Prime Music with a catalog of more than 2 million songs. Amazon Unlimited Music steps that up to 50 million songs, similar to its main competitors Apple Music and Spotify. You can stream music or download tracks on iOS, Android, and Fire Tables.
Another service that has gotten quite popular over the years is Prime Video, another prized perk of Prime members. First used as an additional selling point for Prime, Amazon now aims to compete with Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming services, complete with its own productions and all.
In the US (as you might know, Prime Video is not available in all countries), you can stream content in your browser, as well as a variety of other devices, including:
- Android devices
- iOS devices
- Fire tablets
- Fire phone
- Smart TVs
- Blu-ray players
- Amazon Fire TV
- Fire TV Stick
- Game consoles
You can also download movies and TV shows to your library and have them available for offline streaming for as long as your subscription is current.
Of course, we can’t forget books and music albums when talking about Amazon. Most if not all record albums are available for digital download, including many that are out of print on CD and other media.
You can count on Kindle ebooks to be more affordable than prints. Amazon also created Audible, the audiobook streaming and download service.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, Amazon has all kinds of digital downloads and services on offer.
If you haven’t had a chance to do so, now is as good a time as any to check out Amazon’s digital downloads. You’ll find a few things that catch your eyes – that’s almost a given. On second thought, maybe don’t browse if you’d rather not part with your money.
Do you use Amazon’s digital download or streaming services? Any complaints or is it all good? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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