When you’re buying music from amazon you’ll in most cases get an encrypted .amz file containing the download links. This file would require the amazon-mp3-downloader to be decrypted. But it’s only available for a handfull and old distros.

The developer behind clamz managed to find a way to decrypt .amz files, so everyone can buy music from amazon.

First of all install clamz (users of my apt-repo simply install the clamz package):

grab the source from the homepage.

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./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install (or su -c "make install")

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For simply downloading the purchased files issue:

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clamz <.amz-file>

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Now lean back and wait until your files are downloaded. By default the files are placed in the music-folder set by xdg-user-dirs — this would be $HOME/Music in english or $HOME/Musik in german environments. Of course clamz got the ability to change the output directory and the output filename. Next follows the allowed set of tags for doing so:

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${title}
${creator}
${album}
${tracknum}
${album_artist}
${genre}
${discnum}
${suffix}
${asin}
${album_asin}

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Some examples on changing the output directory or filename:

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clamz -o "${artist} - ${title}.${suffix}" <.amz-file>
(= Technoboy Meets Ruffian - The Undersound.mp3)

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clamz --output="${tracknum} - ${title}.${suffix}" <.amz-file>
(= 01 - The Undersound.mp3)

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For sure you can combine both switches. If you want to resume an already began download, simply issue:

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clamz -r <.amz-file>

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For all less common switches check the help:

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clamz --help

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Happy listening!

The german version of this article has been released on ProLinux.