I'm Not a Bad Person, Amazon-san, Honest!

February 23, 2012 2:28 PM

I live overseas. I like music. I want to purchase and download MP3s from Amazon.com, which are literally half the price of the same album sold by iTunes Japan. Amazon doesn't want to let me do this.

Last night I experimented with hotspotshield, a free VPN service that hid the fact that I'm overseas. To test it I successfully watched Hulu (which is pretty darn cool. America has come a long way since I lived there!).

Unfortunately, Amazon will still not let me order an MP3 with an overseas credit card, which is all I have. If I get someone who lives in the States to buy me an Amazon gift certificate, and use this in conjunction with the VPN, will I be able to enter the nirvana of cheap, legal MP3 albums?

posted by zachawry to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Over here in Europe, we just change our credit card billing address to a US address temporarily.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:29 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think you can take the VPN out of the equation. Its the card.

I live in the UK but have a US card as well. I can order fine from Amazon MP3 and US Itunes. I assume the same will be true with the gift card.
posted by vacapinta at 2:49 PM on February 23, 2012

I think Vacapinta has it. You can create an account, use any real or made up USA address. They key is using a US credit card or iTunes gift cards. You can buy either on eBay, but you'd probably be safer getting a friend in the US to pick some up for you.
posted by goshling at 3:25 PM on February 23, 2012

Let's see... I had this problem with buying ebooks at one point; I had a US debit card, but no money in that account at the time, and they wouldn't let me use our Greek card – so I bought myself an Amazon gift card with the Greek card (not while logged into my regular Amazon account; I may have used a second account, but I don't think you need to be registered to Amazon to buy a gift card), and used the gift card money to buy the ebooks. Your Amazon account must show a US address for this to work.
posted by taz at 12:26 AM on February 24, 2012

I have this issue too with many american website and it is a bit fustrating especially being from Canada (i can almost reach over and smack amazon, ha) but lately i've been on head-fi.org website and there are many website that sell higher quality audio and internationally too. But yes you can find some good deals on amazon, cant deny.
posted by pytar gucchy at 7:36 PM on February 24, 2012