For about as long as we can remember, each new CD we’ve purchased has made a trip to our computer for a good, old fashioned ripping, first thing out of the plastic. So the concept of offering up free MP3s with the purchase of a compact disc always felt a bit superfluous (particularly in these days when fewer and fewer are buying music in a physical form). The increasingly popular concept of offering up downloads with the purchase of a vinyl LP, on the other hand, makes an awful lot of sense — after all, it’s a lot harder for most of us to transfer that music onto our PCs. Amazon’s embracing the concept by extending its AutoRip promotion to records, giving consumers a 256 Kbps cloud-based copy of the music they buy on vinyl. The promotion extends to thousands of titles — anything sporting the AutoRip logo is fair game.