Limited time - MS offering 50 free MP3 Albums & Many $2 boxed sets

Amid all the Black Friday and seasonal specials, Microsoft for a limited time is offering a pretty good deal for music lovers who have a Windows 8 or above device, or Windows Phone -- your choice of any among 50 full non-DRM MP3 music albums by a variety of top-flight artists among different genres, as well as a selection of downloadable boxed-set albums for only $1.99 plus tax.

This special has been advertised/written up on CNET and a variety of other places, and I myself last night took advantage of the free albums, and then came back today to grab a handful of boxed set download albums. And I should say, these are regular, well-known albums by a variety of first-rate artists. All with no DRM and all in 320 Kbps.

Among the free albums I grabbed were those by artists such as John Lennon, Elton John, Akon, Bob Marley, Boyz II Men, Lady Gaga, Lionel Richie, Norah Jones, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Shania Twain, The Rolling Stones and the Who.

Among the boxed sets available for $1.99 apiece are compilations by George Harrison, Elton John, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a lot more.

There's only one certain catch, and one possible one. The certain catch is you only can take advantage of these offers by downloading and using the Music and Music Deals apps on Windows 8 and above devices, or Windows Phones. (Unfortunately, no joy for Windows 7 and below users).

The only possible catch is, from what I've read online, the free albums offer seems to be limited to U.S. MS accountholders. So when I did my downloads and purchases, I did so with a VPN because I'm traveling at present, just in case, and it worked fine. I didn't try doing the downloads and purchases with a straight Thai IP, because I was trying to avoid complications.

Here's a CNET article link that further explains the promotion, although it talks about 100 free albums. Not sure if that was incorrect originally, or MS somewhere along the way reduced the free album group to 50. As of tonight, when I go online, the free album group is 50.

http://www.cnet.com/news/get-100-free-mp3-albums-from-microsoft/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2852240/microsofts-giving-100-insanely-good-music-albums-away-for-free-selling-box-sets-for-2.html

And here's MS's original blog announcement of this:

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/11/25/massive-music-deals-promotion-just-in-time-for-the-holidays/

Remember, albums you download as part of our Music Deals are all MP3s. You can download these albums, keep them, and play them on whatever device you have.

The PC World article linked above has a better, clearer, more accurate description of how to access the free and discount albums. It's not difficult at all, provided you have the right device, and the two required apps installed.

To download the free albums through the Music and Music Deals apps (you need to install and have both!!), you just need a MS account log-in. But to purchase any paid albums, of course, you need to provide a bank card or Paypal info.

From what the MS apps show online today, the particular group of $1.99 boxed set albums they're currently offering are only supposed to be offered for the next several days. But the free albums offer is supposed to continue for a couple weeks more.