If You Have Digital Movies, You Should Use Movies Anywhere

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Being an Apple enthusiast, it should come as no surprise that I prefer to redeem digital copies of movies in iTunes (or whatever we’re going to call it now that iTunes is more or less dead — I guess Apple TV?). I’ll admit, though, that I have held some trepidation on having all my digital eggs in one digital basket.

This afternoon I was having lunch with a friend from church and we were talking about this, since he had a large movie collection in Walmart’s Vudu system, and he travels internationally a lot and can’t always access Vudu. So I told him about the solution I use to make sure my movies are in more than one place.

Movies Anywhere. Owned by Disney, the Movies Anywhere service acts like a central hub for your movies between a bunch of different services. When you add a movie to Movies Anywhere it will also add them into your other connected services’ libraries. And vice versa.

For instance, I had a lot of movies in iTunes when I signed up for my Movies Anywhere account. When I connected iTunes to Movies Anywhere, suddenly all those movies (except Lionsgate films, because they are being party poopers) showed up in Movies Anywhere. Then I connected Amazon, where I had zero digital movies, and all my movies showed up as purchased there!

It’s awesome. Truly.

One time this actually saved my bacon was when I wanted to watch a movie while traveling, and iTunes was misbehaving. So I opened up the Movies Anywhere app on my iPad, connected it to the TV, and started the movie there.

If you use any of the services that work with Movies Anywhere, I encourage you to sign up, especially since it is free:

  • Apple TV/iTunes
  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Vudu
  • Google Play/YouTube
  • Microsoft Movies & TV
  • xfinity
  • Fandango Now
  • Verizon Fios

Movies Anywhere is a digital locker done right. It cross-pollinates your movies across a variety of services you choose, which can give peace of mind when it comes to ephemeral digital goods.

It should go without saying, but the above is an honest to goodness personal recommendation, and not an ad. No one is paying me to recommend Movies Anywhere.