Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. This helps keep this website running.
You bought some MP3 tunes on Amazon in the past, but you need to download them again - without buying them again or spending any money. Yes it's possible, in fact it's easy! But Amazon doesn't make it obvious to find how to do it. Here is an easy step by step tutorial for how to do this on a laptop or computer. You can't do this from an Android phone, unfortunately.
People wind up in this situation if their music was on an old laptop but they have now gotten a new laptop, or if they accidentally deleted their old music files. No problem, just download the previously purchased music from Amazon. Here we go.
Step 1: Log into your Amazon account and go to "orders"
Go to Amazon.com, log in, and go to "account" and "orders" or you can try this shortcut link direct to the correct section which should work for US readers.
If you are starting from scratch, this is how you should start, see pic:
Step 2: Click on the "Digital Orders" tab
After completing the previous step, you'll be on your "Orders" page, and next you need click on "Digital Orders"; it's another tab nearby circled in red in the image below:
After you click on the Digital Orders tab, you'll see your list of tunes that you purchased. There may be other digital items in there if you purchased other digital content besides MP3 music, but your music will definitely be there. Don't panic if you don't see it there yet, I have some tips in the next step.
Step 3: Locate your tunes from your digital orders
At this point, after following steps 1 and 2, your screen should look like this:
As you can see, I purchased "Drop the Pilot" by Joan Armatrading and a Rossini overture, La Scala di seta. In this case I can see my MP3 music in my digital order list.
If you bought an MP3 and it's not showing up in your digital orders
Don't worry if you don't see it! It's probably in an older order. Amazon typically just shows you your most recent orders by default. So just click on the time picker under "Digital Orders" (circled in previous pic). You'll be able to select from different timeframes and/or years. You might have to hunt around a little, but your tunes will be there.
Step 4. Download your music from your digital orders
Be aware that it will usually only let you download your music one additional time from your digital orders (in addition to when you first bought it) so you can't do this infinite times. Therefore, note carefully which folder you are downloading your music into - more on that just below.
For each MP3, or album/collection of MP3's, simply click the "Download music" button that I circled on the right in the previous picture above. Do NOT click on the song title otherwise it will take you to the product to make you buy it again. Instead just click on the Download Music button. It will download your music to your computer: the computer might prompt you if you want to save it, click "yes" or "accept".
Typically your downloaded music will wind up either in your "Downloads" folder or your "Music" folder on your computer, so check both. If you have choice where to put it, place it in your Music folder because that's where your music player will look for it.
What to do if you if it gives you a Zip file
At this point, instead of a nice MP3 file with an image of the song cover, you may be presented with a file that has the icon of a box or a package. Don't worry, that's OK! If you downloaded multiple MP3's or a whole album, it'll zip those MP3's into a package so as not to have a million and one files that each need downloading one at a time. This is actually doing you a favor even if it doesn't feel like it right now!
If you have a Zip file with the box or package icon, simply double-click on it; your computer will unzip it for you. Just click "yes" or "accept" on the prompt to extract the files. Now you will have some new folders next to your Zip file; leave the Zip file alone and double-click on the new folders. Your MP3's will be in there.
Conclusion
You don't have to purchase your MP3 music again if you already bought it earlier. It's sitting right there in your Amazon account, and you can download it to your laptop or computer whenever you want, without spending another cent.
If on the other hand you want to buy new MP3 tracks, we have an illustrated tutorial for how to buy multiple MP3's on Amazon. We also cover how to see the Amazon reviews you wrote.
