Not able to sample songs on Amazon

[Bill Mollenhauer]

I don't know where to post this so move it if it is wrong.

For about week I have found that the little piece that shows the progress of the 30 sec sample of a song on Amazon is not there. Clicking on the song number does nothing to play the song sample. I originally thought it was my computer but it is not on my wife's computer either. Has Amazon changed something because of COVID? Anyone else have this problem. Anyone have a way to get to someone at Amazon. I have been round and round trying on their website trying to find a way to contact them.

Bill Mollenhauer

[Jim Fogle]

Bill,

I just visited the Amazon.com website. I did not sign in or create an account but did all my viewing as a guest.

I found the Amazon Music page and selected the Mellow '70's Gold playlist.

The play emblem at the top of the list plays the complete playlist from top to bottom.

If you want to play the sample of a specific song navigate to the song and the number on the left changes to a play emblem.

It works pretty much the same way if you select an album but you only get 30 samples instead of full songs.

My laptop is using Windows 10 Home and the Firefox browser.

[Bill Mollenhauer]

Jim'

I don't think we are talking about the same place. I think you are talking about the streaming service which I don't know anything about.

IF you go to Amazon and open it up you find at the top of the page a window At the top and on the left of the window is a dropdown with a category list. Select CDs and vinyl. Type in Johnny Paycheck as an example. Click ok and it takes you to Johnny Paycheck CDs. The one at the top is The Soul & the Edge CD. Click on that and it takes you to among other things about the CD what formats it is in. Select MP3 and it takes you to the numbered song list of the CD. There is no way to play the 30 second sample of the songs.

Normally you would mouse over the number and click on it and a 30 second sample of the song would play. At the top of the song list would be a bar that indicated where in the 30 seconds you were listening and buttons to start and stop the sample.

Bill Mollenhauer

[Jim Fogle]

Bill,

I followed your guidance step-by-step.

I selected selected Johnny Paycheck. I selected Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and 2 which are available on vinyl but not on CD or download. There are no samples available for these albums.

Then I selected John Denver's Back Home Again album which is available in vinyl and CD. The 30 second samples are available and play.

It seems if a song or album is not available in a digital format then samples are not available.

[Bill Mollenhauer]

Jim,

Clearly something is wrong. When I type in johnny paycheck greatest hits vol 1 and 2 it says there is no cd by that name. When I type in the john Denver cd back home again it is available in kindle only and no play feature. When I type in Iris Dement and open the Cd The Way I Should there is no way to play it. I bought that one used about 2 weeks ago and I listened to the song samples before I bought it.

Bill Mollenhauer

[Dave Mudgett]

I just went to the amazon page hawking Iris Dement's The Way I Should - https://www.amazon.com/Way-I-Should-Iri ... B000002N5K

30-second samples were indeed available and played with no problem. I'd suspect something is going on with your browser. Could be that it is no longer supported, there may be a setting that is messing it up. Do you have cookies or scripts disabled? Try a different browser, re-install a more current version of the one you have, try someone else's computer, many possibilities.

[Bill Mollenhauer]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. That is something I will look into. I will have to get ahold of my neighbor for that tomorrow. I will show him what you wrote. I did try playing the song samples on my wife's computer and I cant play them on her's either which doesn't make sense to me.

Bill Mollenhauer

[Bill Mollenhauer]

OK Jim and Dave,

Here is the solution. I was playing around trying to figure it out when I decided to go to the DESK TOP to start the internet browser program. I always start it from the symbol on the taskbar. I also realized I was using EDGE not EXPLORER for a browser. It worked.

I went over to see my neighbor and he said he has seen that before. The link get corrupted. The solution is to unpin the symbol from the TASKBAR and delete it, then get a new one from the DESK TOP and put in the TASKBAR. Now the music samples play fine on Amazon.

Thanks for helping Bill Mollenhauer

[Wiz Feinberg]

I no longer have Internet Explorer as a browser, in Windows 10 Pro (it was removed for unpatchable security vulnerabilities and lack of full SSL compliance).

I use the current version of Firefox and followed your link description. I ended up on this page, where I found an mp3 song list that allows for sampling, via the right facing arrow link labeled: "Sample this album" - which plays 30 seconds of all the songs.

I just duplicated the process with the same successful results using Microsoft Edge. It plays the samples after clicking the aforementioned arrow.

[Jim Fogle]

Bill,

I'm glad you have a solution and it's working for you now.

That's the first time I've heard of a taskbar shortcut becoming corrupt so that the program reacts differently than when a different shortcut, like the one on your desktop, is used.

I learned something from your experience. Thanks for taking time to inform us on your findings!

[Bill Mollenhauer]

Jim,

When you open an album with the numbered song list sometimes the play bar is not there. Say there are 3 formats listed. Streaming, CD and vinyl. If you cycle through and then come back to the first one the play bar will appear. Good enough for me.

Bill Mollenhauer

[Jim Fogle]

Bill,

The samples Amazon plays come from the music publisher. Most of the time Amazon never receives samples for vinyl or cassette. Vinyl and cassette are analog formats while compact diskette (CD), MP3 and MP4 are digital. The publisher typically does not provide digital samples for analog formats.