music_news 91 posts

nobody wants to pay a dollar for a song that has DRM on it, and has only 192 bit rate. maybe they will learn that they need to lower the price... you know... the simple concept of supply and demand. and i think 15 cents for a song is the right price. allofmp3 has got it right.

South African users cant buy anything from iTunes due to credit card needing to be based in US. AllofMP3 is the solution for us.

Prices for songs are too high on iTunes and MSN. The cosy arrangement betweeen record companies and music web sites needs to change and be more competitive.

AllofMP3 have got the balance right between quality downloads, choice and realistic prices.

iTunes offer 'Digital Versions' of albums which mean users miss out on about 75% of the tracks, what's the point when you pay only 50% less than buying the FULL album elsewhere?

I want to buy music from allofmp3, but I am prevented by the strange payment method. Couldn't this be rectified, i.e. couldn't some more common credit cards be used? You specify Visa when payment is asked, but when you reach the final page only Diner's is offered. Pay Pal is also a good possibility. Is allofmp3 being boycotted by major credit card companies?
M.Madsen

Yes, it is. ALLOFMP3 has been banned since a few months after many years of good credit cards trade practises. Please browse the blogs here where you will find the whole story and solutions for payments that work.

DRM is a stupid commercial game! It was evident from the beginning that confidence in DRM would one day collapse, simply because you buy DRM as long as you think that it is the only solution for collecting MP3 files ; but one day you discover that DRM is not eternal ; other solutions elsewhere prevail. So what will you do ten years from here with your mountains of DRM files, bought at inflated prices, that you will never be able to transfer, and perhaps never be able to listen to in case your player evolute and your lovely "protected file provider company" crashes and disappear??

The simple idea of buying something that cannot be resold means that buyers fell in a trap! Even vinyl and CD's owner can still resell them in shops or auctions, not the DRM "owners". The great debate is not between protected and unprotected music, it is sure that protected solutions will disappear like dinosaurs. The debate is between on-line hearing by suscription, or on-line buying, that's all.

So anyone owning shares in companies that sell any form of protected music shoud sell them by emergency!

Some years back i got a free iTunes song from a coke cap, at that time i was using the Nomad Jukebox and i taught i could use it for my Jukebox, WRONG! It had that idiotic DRM in it, in order to get the one free song i had to install the iTunes software and sign up, after all that BS, i couldn't use it. I was mad and i unstalled iTunes, not to my surprise the song wouldn't play on the PC without iTunes, "Free song my (___][___).." I never taught i'd buy an iPod and i did, i use it with the iTunes software but they're not gonna get one penny from me....

If you are in the U.S. and having trouble with the check out procedure, you may need to do the following: (based on my own personal experience).
You will need to contact your credit card company and let them know that you will be making an overseas transaction. Many credit card companies flag and simultaneously prevent these transactions for fear of fraud. To put money in my account, I call the credit card company and tell them turn this foreign filter "off" momentarily... I usually have the operator stand by while I make the transaction, so that afterwards they can turn the filter back on while I am still on the line (after allofmp3 has confirmed my purchase). Hope it helps.

I too found that payments from credit cards (Vias & Mastercard) had been stopped. A bit of research found out that this was due to Visa & Mastercard deciding that allofmp3 was an ilegal servcie, even though nothing has been proven one way or another. This has left me with very little choice in that I can only creit my account if I use an xRost pre-paid voucher, which I can purchase in the UK using something called Click&Buy run by British Telecom. This is a bit fiddly, but does at least allow me to credit my account. If there was an alternative method - such as PayPal or NoChex - then this would make my life a darn sight easier.

The only downside I've found with AllofMP3 so far is their customer service when it comes to answering questions. No matter how detailed your question, the stock answer is given, namely a direct quote from the FAQ page. However, in all cases so far, the FAQ page hasn't helped me, which is why I was contacting them in the first place. It woudl be much better if AllofMP3 gave more consideration when replying to questions.

Help us South Africans visa credit card holders out. How can we continue to buy from All of MP3? We can't buy Xrost either ...

iTunes songs are only at 128 kb/s not 192 as mentioned above... Sites like this are the way forward!

You can't compare apples and oranges. Indeed, iTunes songs are "only" at a 128 rate. But they ACC and not mp3, meaning the quality is much higher than a 128 mp3.

I stopped buying from iTunes because of sales tax, not because of any DRM issues. Blame my state's government.

allofmp3 has it right...sort of. The price and model is great but I'm getting sick and tired of this crap about the ordering being down for scheduled maintenance. I've never seen a site be down so much and so often. It really makes me nervous that one day the site and my balance will not come back at all.

I've been using Allofmp3 for over six months and I fully support the service. However I'd just like to point out one very important point. The report that itunes revenue is down by 65 percent is a load of rubbish. Every tech expert except for Rob Enderle (who is a Microsoft troll and serial Apple basher) has questioned Forrester's research.

Whilst I support Allofmp3 and will continue to do so this is all part of a legal strategy to garner support and evidence for any potential litigation. My advice to Allofmp3 (and their legal counsel) is to be measured in the stories they post otherwise it just affects your credibility.

Now I have to get my Weezer albums that I purchased last night.

So has the fat lady sung??? Are we to say goodbye to Allofmp3??

I think that anyone would buy from allofmp3 instead of iTunes because of the price range. Also, Apple has many other things against them:
They over price, all their songs have DRM on them and are in pathethic quality... I tested a song from allofmp3 that I got in the 128kbps format and put it up against a 1$ version of the same song in AAC. The AAC was clearly worse to my ears. Also, NO ONE WANTS TO BUY AAC SONGS !!! even if someone has an iPod, you cant do anything with AAC protected songs. I could just buy the same album at the store, have a hard copy with GREAT quality, no weird formats and basically the same price...

Bottom line: iTunes need to get more competetive and not only price wise....

vik,

When I use allofmp3 I encode in AAC. Perhaps you should be more specific. Apple's 128kbps AAC format is from the original Masters. Allofmp3's music is from purchased cds. You must compare allofmp3 music in the AAC format at 128kbps to Apple's AAC format at the same bitrate. Then you'll see that Apple's quality is superior.

Having made that point DRM in any manner sucks! Likewise, I use allofmp3 because of the encoding and bit rate freedom. This means I can purchase music in real cd quality not "near cd quality" as is the case at the iTunes Store.

I'm sorry mate I spent over 15 years in the entertainment industry and spent a lot of time learning about encoding and bit rates. One final point, AAC is the format favoured by the Dolby group as being the most superior format. It may not be the most popular, but along with OGG-Borvis it is the best that's going around. And please don't start talking about bloatware such as mp3 and WAV. They are the bottom of the wrung.

I didn't criticise your point about allofmp3's price because you're dead-right on that issue. And that's why the RIAA and co. are trying to shut down this site. My advice is to keep purchasing music from allofmp3 as long as you can. Likewise I wouldn't be putting heaps of money with site…just in case. The agreement between the American and Russian governments specifically refers to allofmp3. Download while you can and keep your fingers crossed. It's going to get really nasty.

This is good news for all music lovers enjoy clean stuff. You can read on other sources that the report is a lie. Yeah there are greedy dickhead get upset with the report. Anyway DRM is gonna decease!

Paying one dollar per song in iTunes means that a 12 or 15 song download will cost exactly or very near the real cd itself (at least in this country), with the problem of not getting the same sound quality plus some additional file restrictions. Allofmp3 is a very good option regarding perceived value added vs. sound quality. It is a pity the site is being attacked by Visa and MasterCard.

itunes software = Satan handiwork

What i dislike about iTunes is WHY should I have to pay almost twice as much to download music videos as someone who lives in the US ?

Maybe Allof could start its own video jukebox for members to download music videos......

I would love to be able to download music videos.

I already posted this in another thread, but it can't be repeated enough: the songs in the iTunes store are lowpass filtered at 15.5kHz (= FM broadcast quality). Even though AAC is better than MP3 (but only slightly if I believe my own experiments), 128kbps is simply not enough to get anywhere near CD quality. That's why they lowpass filter the music to make it easier for the encoder to keep the quality decent within the insufficient bitrate. My guess is that if you buy an AAC or MP3 at low bitrate from allofmp3, it will be lowpass filtered too. But here you can choose to use any bitrate and format you want.
I always use quality-based Ogg encoding. Using a constant bitrate is nonsense for anything else than streaming, when will people finally realize this?

ITunes is a rip-off.. pure and simple.

I used ITunes one time. Ninety-nine cents is ridiculous for a single song. Maybe they'll get the picture when they see their ITunes revenues dropping like crazy. Long live AllofMP3.com! Damn, I'm glad I found this site.

Listen!All USA citizens must support ALLOFMP3 ..This site is bringing music to all the Masses at a fair price..unlike our countries buyer unfriendly sites that are based totally on greed..maybe the change in our government(Dems) will bring some enlightment to this situation and will honor trade agreements....and the rights of its citizens.
After saying that, don't put a bundle in the kitty..because you can't trust our greedy Country to pull the plug on us..Pray for peace..

iTunes > Allofmp3. Simple as that.

Executives at ALLOFMP3 shoot back and sue corrupt RIAA! RIAA is a bunch of fucked up greedy retarded liar want control anything about music business. RIAA is worse as MAFIA! ALLOFMP3 shoot back!

I mentioned on the itunes forum that you don't get anything for your money when purchasing from itunes and the moderators went mad. At this moment in time, UK multiple stores and 'CD WOW' are selling actual CD's for 1p less than an album can be downloaded from itunes. Of course with a CD you can do whatever you want from intergrating it with your own videos to actually selling it on ebay to recoup some of your outlay. If it wasn't for sites like AllofMP3 the 'legal' download sites would continue to screw us for mega bucks when they offer nothing (tangible) for your money. Argueably itunes only make 20p per downloaded track from the 99p cost to UK downloaders so they should be campaigning the record companies to reduce their costs. They should also get rid of that stupid DRM that the French have finally cracked so we can do whatever we want with the music downloaded.

People talk about greed - from American download companies and the US government- but what you should remember is that Itunes actually has agreements with the artists who make the songs that are sold so that they share in the profits for the WORK they do. I rather doubt allofmp3.com is sending your favorite musician any cash and thus you have the lower price. Instead of buying a CD, and just throwing it up on the site, if this site took the time and effort to cut deals with artists that are better than the deals other companies make - then it could legally stay competitve in the market. But I'm sure they made all the cash they need and now they're just milking it for what it's worth until their illegal operation is shut down...so I'm going to download some cheap electronica now that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise unless allofmp3 stole it for me, and then I am going to buy Nas' Hip Hop is Dead album in a mom & pop music shop to support both my local community and a great lyricist. I still love you Russia.

All of Mp3 has been playing by the book - albeit a book that is a little bit flawed-. They have done their homework, and are exploiting the loopholes in the law. Why should they be punished or have pressure imposed because they are doing something that EVERY politician does in EVERY country in the world?

Oh so because it's iTunes, you hate it being it's from Apple? What about the Zune Marketplace? Napster? They all use DRM in their songs as well. .99¢ is not that bad of a deal, but again, I guess high school kids with no jobs find that impossible to grasp? Get over it.

by juan, 20 December 2006, 12:06

itunes software = Satan handiwork

-----------------------

You are a real bright boy ain't ya juan? Dunce. Stupid.

Did allofmp3 get rid of the free 10 cents when you sign up for an account? This really sucks =/

The price of songs in ALLof is brill, the choice of encoding makes it so much easier for use on other equipement, I would be very dissapointed if the site was forced to shut down. Power to the people!!!

I have written to several news outlets on my views. It reads:
I saw today that the record companies are trying to sue www.allofmp3.com Now in a battle on the War on the Middle Class, how is it that a foreign company can be sued by a U.S. entity for selling their services by computer. If this is possible and the Russian company is abiding by Russian law, why can't U.S. Citizens sue companies by outsourcing U.S. jobs and using these oversees companies for the selling of their products. We receive no royalties for their gain. This isn't fair and sounds like a good premise for a class action law suit against all companies that practice outsourcing, if the record companies win do you think that it will set a precedent?

Thank you,

All of MP3, Fight back now. Introduce AllofDVD.com, put it in Divx format and charge a dollar a gigabit. Just make sure you follow Russian laws. The people in the U.S. are fighting for you. Just follow your countries laws, expand to bigger and larger and keep up the good work. DON'T BACK DOWN, show no fear. That is what companies do in the U.S. when they are challenged. Look at rip off Microsoft. Maybe even expand into software. You have a right to make money in the U.S. as long is you follow your countries laws, and pay what you have too. In the United States it is illegal to pass a law to aim at a company to put them out of business if they are a legitimate company, that pay their taxes and don't break the countries copyright laws. If it would happen they did, you would be GRANDFATHERED. That is why I am saying start ALLofDVD.com and maybe Allofsoftware.com, before Russia outlaws you. Apply to be grandfathered because passing such a law would put you out of business, and you would have no way of earning a fair living. And by our laws you would have to be exempt of such laws providing you would never change ownership of the company. Fight like every other country does and use the laws of the United States to defend yourself. DON'T LET THEM BUY YOU OUT EITHER. YOU HAVE A WHOLE LOT MORE TO GAIN TO HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU'VE GOT you could sell stock in the company, just not ownership.

Abbazabba, If you go to allofmp3 from a US ip, you will not get any payment options that work. The links to those options have been removed. But, if you buy an xrost card, go to allofmp3 and log in, you can type the xrost payment url directly into your browsers' address bar and it will work.

Go here >http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/424675.html

you are wrong...>
you cant use visa/mastercard there.

AND i cant use xrost cos im outside us and uk. im screwed

I purchased a visa gift card, which is treated like cash and used it on ALLOFMP3 with no problems. However, there is a charge to buy the pre-paid credit card, and they charge an intenational transaction fee when used overseas, but even after these charges it is still far cheaper than what big business charges for their songs! I'm unsure if they have blocked the use of these types of cards also, but it seems that since you have already paid for the service and it isn't in their terms and agreements for gift cards when purchased they shouldn't be able to deny it's use here. To me that would be an after-the-fact change in a legal transaction and agreement.

I can buy the cd from the store, and have something to physically hold in my hand for almost the same prices as getting a cd off their site...

I've been using all of mp3 for close to 4 years now.. I liked it better when it was 1 cent a mb, but its still way out ahead of the pack when it comes to bang for your dollar.

ERRATA

ALLOFMP3, favour pay well the artists/copyright owners. Peoples need buy legal music to no infringe copyright laws.

Tidus

We're now moving into the final act with the news that the record companies are suing allofmp3.com.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Technology/Record-labels-sue-operator-of-Russian-music-Web-site-AllofMP3com/2006/12/15/1165685862359.html


If alllofmp3.com contests the action - and I expect them to do this, we music lovers will be initially faced with the following two scenarios:

1. The plaintiffs ask for injuctive relief and ask for an interim decision to suspend the operations of the defendant because it affects their operations or,

2. The defendant argues such a decision would be detremental to their business.

It is doubtful that the court would allow option no. 1 so we then move to the hearing stage (after mentions and the like). This will take some time so for some months this site will continue to function unless the Russian federal government pulls the plug. It may suit the Russian government to wait for the outcome and then take action on the basis of the decision (or despite the decision). In all events allofmp3 will continue operating for some months to come.

I actually wouldn't mind paying a buck a song IF I were actually buying it. But DRM is garbage...who wants to pay that much per song just to "rent" it, or to be told what you can and cannot do with it?? The songs I want that I cannot get on ALLOFMP3 I just buy on CD from Amazon, rip them, and sell the CD back on Amazon.

The record labels have this all wrong. I just spent $25 on music from this site and intend on coming back for $25 more in the next few days. That is $50 I never would have spent on albums from brick and mortar stores or DRM restricted songs. To make a long story short, the record labels just lost $25 in revenues they could have earned had they presented to me a more fair pricing structure and purchasing format such as what this site offers.

I am a great supporter of ALLOFMP3 but a few friends and myself have been frustrated lately by a plague of porn arriving as spam mail. The thing we all have in common is using ALLOFMP3. It seems too much of a coincidence. I would suggest this is another weapon in the war to discredit the service. It has unfortunately put three friends off using the site in future. I get about 50-100 of this shitty spam per day which is very annoying, but I still think the site is great.

Good Grief a lot of you guys are a BUNCH OF BABIES, I personally like being able to get songs off itunes when they are too obscure or not available on allofmp3.com. Do you realize the amount of negotiating apple had to too get to where they are at, and they are the best legal service. I love allofmp3.com and COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT, but I don't and never will compare it with a legal service. You do realize that the government that allows this site to give us the music we crave also murders people that openly criticize it. P.S. I never get spam and I've been using this for years

in reality, iTunes AAC is the superior format. AAC is a much newer compression format than mp3 and is vastly superior. read any article on the subject and you'll find this to be true. AAC (as well as any other good lossy compression format) filters out the frequencies that the human ear cannot hear anyway.

WAV and AIFF are lossless compression formats, ie the format of the files found on a CD.

tracks from allofmp3 begin life as a 192kbps mp3 and if you request a different format, they are REcompressed into the format you selected.

therefore, if you request a 128kbps AAC file from allofmp3, you're actually getting a file that has been compressed twice.

as for pricing, allofmp3 gives 0% of the money you pay for songs to the rightful copyright owners (the songwriters, performers, record labels). instead, they give money to a Russian licensing agency that doesn't have the right to collect licensing fees in the first place and does not distribute funds properly. so of course allofmp3's prices are better. why else would all the major credit card companies deny its customers the ability to use this service?

everyone knows russia has some of the worst copyright laws in the civilized world. Brazil and China may have it beat though. allofmp3 is perfect for russia for this reason. it will be interesting to see how litigation pans out. the RIAA and IFPI have an interesting case regarding the interpretation of these files as imports.

for now, i'm getting my fill of cheap music here :) If the RIAA sues any US allofmp3 users (which it won't), we can just claim ignorance to the fact that it is illegal.

ps, why are people crying about DRM on iTunes purchases? have you honestly not figured out how easy it is to remove it!? just burn an audio disc of the purchased songs and REIMPORT it into iTunes. :/

KCJohn wrote:

" I personally like being able to get songs off itunes when they are too obscure or not available on allofmp3.com. Do you realize the amount of negotiating apple had to too get to where they are at, and they are the best legal service. I love allofmp3.com and COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT, but I don't and never will compare it with a legal service."

hail slayer wrote:

" [...] as for pricing, allofmp3 gives 0% of the money you pay for songs to the rightful copyright owners (the songwriters, performers, record labels). instead, they give money to a Russian licensing agency that doesn't have the right to collect licensing fees in the first place and does not distribute funds properly. so of course allofmp3's prices are better. why else would all the major credit card companies deny its customers the ability to use this service? everyone knows russia has some of the worst copyright laws in the civilized world. Brazil and China may have it beat though. allofmp3 is perfect for russia for this reason. it will be interesting to see how litigation pans out. the RIAA and IFPI have an interesting case regarding the interpretation of these files as imports. "



KCJohn and hail slayer, I reccomend one good lecture of the FAQ available at ALLOF MP3 before say that: 1) iTunes is the best legal service; 2) you would never compare ALLOFMP3 with a legal service; 3) ALLOFMP3 gives our money to a Russian Licensing Agency that doesn't have the right to colect licensing feed and does not distribute funds properly; 4) Russia has one of the worst copýright laws in the civilized world; 5) import files from ALLOFMP3 is illegal. Why would it be illegal if copyright owners receive their money ?

To facilitate the execution of the reccomended task ,I present here parts of the text of the FAQ:



1) Is the ALLOFMP3 pay service legal?

Yes; we believe it is legal in Russia under Articles 44 and 45 of the Law of the Russian Federation No. 5351-1 "On Copyright and Related Rights" dated July 9, 1993, as amended, (the "Copyright Law"), which authorizes Russian non-profit Russian organizations for collective management of copyrights ("Russian Licensing Societies") to grant licenses to entities such as ALLOFMP3. ALLOFMP3 has up-to-date licenses from the Russian Licensing Societies, which includes license no. 006/3M-05 from the Federation of Rights Holders for Collective Management of Copyright with Respect to the Use of Musical Works in Interactive Regime ("FAIR") and license no. LS-3M-05-03 from the Russian Organization on Collective Management of Rights of Authors and Other Right Holders in Multimedia, Digital Networks & Visual Arts ("ROMS").

Article 44 of the Copyright Law allows holders of intellectual property rights to establish non-profit organizations such as ROMS. The Russian Copyright Law provides non-profit Russian Licensing Societies with a right to grant licenses and to collect royalties for the use of music without necessarily obtaining permission from the copyright owners, as stated in Article 45(3):

Such licenses grant the right to use (in a manner permitted by such licenses) all works of art and objects of related rights and are issued on behalf of all authors and related rightholders, including those who did not give an authorization to the organization [Russian Licensing Societies] as described in Section 2 of this Article. (emphasis added).


2) Is the AllOfMP3 pay service legal to use in other countries?

We do not definitively know if importation of music from ALLOFMP3 is legal in your country.

3) Do you pay artists?

We pay Russian Licensing Societies 15% for all music. The Russian Licensing Societies will in turn pay the copyright owners, not necessarily the artists. Despite no legal requirement to do so, we are currently considering paying original performing artists 5%, regardless of who owns the copyright to the underlying work.

4) Can the copyright owners actually collect from Russian Licensing Societies like ROMS.

Yes. Similar to Music Licensing Societies in other countries (like ASCAP and BMI in the US), all a copyright owner needs to do is contact the Russian Licensing Societies (e.g., ROMS) and show proof that they own a copyrighted work; after which they can collect accumulated proceeds.

5) Do you have the authority to sell downloads?

Yes we have the authority. We have licenses from the Russian Licensing Societies (see the answer to Question 1, above).

6) But do the Russian Licensing Societies have the authority to license downloading to you?

Yes. Both ROMS and FAIR have the authority. They were both formed under the authority of the Russian Copyright Law (see the answer to Question 1, above).

7) Isn't it illegal to sell downloads without permission from the copyright owner? The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) stated "Under the copyright laws of virtually every country in the world, including Russia, it is illegal to distribute recordings without the permission of the rights owners"[

No; in Russia it is legal to sell downloads without permission from the copyright owner (see the answer to Question 1, above).

From the above quote by the IFPI it seems that they are unaware of: (a) the Russian Copyright Law (see the answer to Question 1, above), (b) the notion of sovereignty of a nation state, and (c) the Berne Convention Article 9(2), which supports such sovereignty.

As a matter of Russian legislation, the Russian Copyright Law Article 45(3) allows a non-profit organization like ROMS to include artists works for licensing to third parties without authorization from the artists (see the answer to Question 1, above). Russia has every right to pass laws that benefit its people as it sees fit, and not as the IFPI sees fit.

8) What's Visa's and Mastercard's problem?

According to certain reports, it appears that charges were dismissed against an individual that downloaded copies for private use where the individual's aim was not to gain wealth. While we cannot begin to comment on what Visa's problem is, we have heard reports that payment services are being pressured by the IFPI, which claims that such activities are illegal in "virtually every country in the world." Apparently, they are unaware that Russia and other countries have chosen not to be legislated by outside cartels. They, apparently, are also unaware that many people, companies and banks are uncomfortable with a payment service acting as an adjudicating body, which ultimately controls who can and cannot enter the stream of commerce. We believe it is inappropriate for them to wield their market position, make arbitrary decisions and take on a role as arbiter of the legality of our (or anyone else's) services. We believe such adjudication falls within the purview of the government of each nation, and there is a chance they are exposing themselves to greater liability by taking on the role of an international monitoring and adjudicating body.

9) Doesn't ROMS need approval from the IFPI or the RIAA to authorize downloading? They stated "ROMS has no mandate from international rights holders to license the site in or outside of Russia"

No. To our knowledge, the IFPI and RIAA are not licensed in Russia, and do not have the authority to dictate Russian policy. Groups like the IFPI seem to be working under the misunderstanding that it is within the purview of a private cartel outside of a sovereign nation to dictate the laws for the nation state and be the arbiter of fairness and prices for foreign governments. We would argue that such cartels have done a poor job of arbitrating fair returns to the artists or to the enjoyment of the public at large within their own countries, and as such, should refrain from attempting to dictate the policies of foreign governments.[

10) Is it fair that Russia has laws that allow Russian Licensing Societies like ROMS to include the works of copyright owners without the owner's approval?

Although fairness is a difficult and very subjective issue, we believe, yes, it is fair. ROMS is fair and so is the Russian Copyright Law for at least three reasons: (1) The law promotes the arts by providing enough incentive for artists to create artistic works, and maximizes enrichment of the people by allowing them to benefit from a wide array of artistic works, (2) this law advances enjoyment for the arts by lowering logistical barriers, and (3) copyright owners are compensated or may opt-out.

First, it is important to realize that the average yearly income level of a Russian person is the equivalent of $4,521 (USD) (or $86.94 a week), and the average download cost from ALLOFMP3 (approximately $0.10) represents a more significant percentage of their weekly wage. That is like a US citizen paying $0.88 (USD) per song (based on a gross average salary of $39,795). ROMS and all groups that are authorized under the Russian Copyright Law are non-profit groups. They were formed by Russian artists and copyright owners for collecting money for the use of their works. In fact, ALLOFMP3 sells many downloads of the works of Russian artists, and those artists do receive compensation from the Russian Licensing Societies. There has been no trouble with this arrangement for the vast majority of works being carried by ALLOFMP3 and ROMS as it compensates artists while trying to make the works accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
Second, the Russian legislature understood that it is difficult-to-impossible to contend with the bureaucracies of 200+ countries (i.e., every country on earth) with regard to licensing. As is the goal of every country, Russia's goals of a) broadening the views of its people, b) providing access to the greatest variety of quality works that intellectually improve its people, c) improving accessibility to works that foster the intellectual improvement of its people, etc., all would be stymied without its Copyright Law. For example, each foreign country may have one or more music licensing societies, numerous conglomerate copyright holders (e.g., labels), countless individual artists that must be approached, and/or a rat-and-hornet infested nest of contract rights and negotiations that must be contended with. Without a progressive Copyright Law, this complexity leads to an almost infinite number of permutations of regulations that would otherwise make the vast majority of works intractable to the people at large. Further, most of these works would otherwise become unavailable as no one is maintaining them because of such bureaucracies. As such, the vast majority of these works will fade into history and most people will be denied ever experiencing them, and their artists will likely be denied the audience that they wished would experience their works.

Thus, it is with great foresight that the legislators of the Russian government created a legal copyright structure that allows Russian Licensing Societies to make artistic works available to the widest possible audience; this further helps to prevent these works from fading into history and preserves them for posterity and furthers culture. And in foreseeing this logistical problem, the Russian legislature provided a mechanism that is similar to the way that libraries work, whereby non-profit organizations could license these far-flung works without the authorization of the author.

This quagmire of bureaucratic incertitude benefits no one: not the people, not the artists, and with rare exception, even the vast majority of copyright owners are stunted with regard to clearing, exploiting and otherwise making creative works available widely, regularly, in multiple formats and with certainty. This logistical mire, were it a standard used for books in libraries, would mean the public could not enjoy the vast majority of books as no library could surmount such bureaucracy. The Russian Copyright Law is fair in that it allows Russian Licensing Societies like ROMS to make such works available so that people can actually enjoy and use these works, rather than have them lost to history because of logistical red-tape that makes the majority of such works unavailable.

We understand that this logistical problem of dealing with orphaned works is so great that the US congress is considering addressing it with the proposed legislation in H.R. 543.
Finally, the Russian legislature was farsighted enough to understand that copyright owners did deserve compensation, and thus the Copyright Law and Russian Licensing Societies allow owners to get their fair share or opt-out. A legitimate copyright owner may request to have their works removed from a Russian Licensing Society, or alternatively, they may request their fair share of the collections. To do so, the owners must simply prove they own the copyrights to such artistic works.
As such, it is our view that this is a very fair system that does promote the advancement of arts for the enjoyment of the people while compensating legitimate copyright owners.

Tidus

AllOfMp3 is teh solution. Never had a problem. Wonderful choice and quality encoding. Other e-shops gave me problems in downolading, long times to solve the problems, tons of spam after using them.

This report only counts the iTunes purchaes from debit and credit cards. This nelects all purchases from gift cards bought in stores like Target, Walmart and thousands of others. Until a report comes out that includes all the ways in which music can be purchased from iTunes, no one can say difinitively wether sales have dropped off or not.

Even if sales have dropped off, iTunes is still unquestionably the leader in legal downloads.

F#@K itunes!!!!!!! This is the greatest site ever. I've been on here for about a year and already have spent about $2000 USD. I download mostly in 128. Why do alot of people say that downloading in 128 is low quality? I know it's not anyway near cd quality, but it sounds good to me. Any thoughts?

I love AOM (

Coverdale. Yes, let us all rejoice and F#@K iTunes. Now onto more interesting topic. 128 sometimes creates an unwanted background noise that can become really nasty when turned up loud on a stereo. Sometimes it is humming, sometimes it's a hiss. I have downloaded an album just to experiment with 128 Bit-rate and it is somewhat more muffled, though hard to tell. If you want a pristine, go with 192 Bit-rate and see for yourself why the extra 10 cents i s worth it.

I can't bring myself to use itunes for 3 reasons...

1. I won't pay a dollar for a song that I don't get to choose my bitrate and is only offered to me in the lowest.

2. DRM. 'nuff said.

3. Regional Coding! There were some Japanese songs I wanted from itunes a while ago and even though they were in the list and i could hear a sample, when I tried to download it, itunes told me that it wasn't available to download in my country! What garbage is that?! After being turned onto AllofMp3.com, not only have I gotten the songs I wanted, but I have been turned onto some great Japanese, Italian, Spanish and even Russian pop music because AllofMp3 has so much available and it's cheap enough to take a chance on a few songs from someone you never heard of! Thanks allofmp3.com for opening my musical tastes!

by hail slayer, 24 December 2006, 22:43

"WAV and AIFF are lossless compression formats, ie the format of the files found on a CD. tracks from allofmp3 begin life as a 192kbps mp3 and if you request a different format, they are REcompressed into the format you selected. therefore, if you request a 128kbps AAC file from allofmp3, you're actually getting a file that has been compressed twice."

That is rubbish. When I download a wav file or a 320 kbps MP3 file from I can hear the quality is superior to 192. There is no way the tracks are recompressed from a 192kbps MP3 - they wouldn't sound so good. A 128K AAC file won't sound as good as a 320kbps MP3. As drives and memory get bigger we won't need to compress files much if at all. We'll all be using wav's making this arguement irelevant.

A dollar or a penny, I wouldn't pay at all for DRM tightened music, or video. As long as DRM will continue, I shall never buy fake. In fact, I'd rather pay a buck for free music than a dime for for DRM baloney.
So, when one gets to find free and low-cost music as on AllOfMP3...

Let's look at one of the world's largest corporations: Walmart

Walmart sells A LOT of items for small prices such as toilet paper, toothpaste, ect. GMC is no where near Walmarts revenue even though the profit for one item is a couple thousand dollars. My point is that Walmart don't charge much for their products yet dominates other porporations like GMC

Time for artists to collect the money owed them by AllofMP3.com, and to encourage this market. It seems to me that if an artist could collect $0.05 from each of 1000 "approved" DRM sales (=$50) vs. collecting $0.01 from each of 10,000 AllofMP3 sales (=$100) they would be better off with the later deal. I would urge musicians to eliminate their greedy production and marketing middlemen.

So far I am very pleased by this service; it is professional, well organized, reliable and has a helluva selection. Nothing like it elsewhere. Go AllofMP3.com!

It's worth it. I mean, c'mon, 99 cents? It's 1.06 with taz. One frackin dollar. I agree, the prices here are way low. but c;mon, id rather buy from a trustworthy company.

I think it's frackin hilairious allofmp3 is being sued for $1.65 Trillion. Yes, that's right Trillion. Don't belive me?

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/12/22/allofmp3com-sued-for-165-trillion/

Copy and paste that, bitchs.

haha yeah i really trust some guy named "Ryan" from a crappy ass website that looks like it was made in the 90's with no legit external references. the place looks like somebodies personal blog. btw, aomp3 cant be sued--they're in russia.

C-RA.. Word.... When will they wake up? I-Tunes is selling DRM laden timebombs.. Didnt apple just release a patch for the first gen I-Pods becuase the current DRM wouldnt work on them?? Holy shit.. Sucks if your collection of "legally" purchased songs from Apple dont work anymore.. Guess you'll have to buy a new IPOD then... No thanks..

i dont understand why people r so freek about iPod. even sony walkman phones sounds better than an iPod. then why do people buy expensive iPods when they can get better sound with lesser price..

99cent songs is fine with a good variable bit rate, but you can't get that on iTunes.
99cents for a 30 second transition song in an album is definitely not okay.
You want to buy an entire album that has several of these transitions with crappy bitrates and you might as well go to a record store and do it yourself and spend the same amount.

can someone please confirm for me: can I pay via paypal? I have heard rumours that you can, but I have not been able to work this out. Can anyone please help me? Thank you.

I bought Elvis on 78, 45, LP and CD´s. The same songs over and over again. The same about The Beatles records, excluding the 78´s. The average older music customer has bought the "rights" several times, why to buy them once more here on allofmp3?

This is a great site, shame about the credit card issues but lets all use the other methods and keep it going.

The reason for the drop on iTunes is becuase there are many sites on the net where you can download music for free which is good for many but many people love to stay legal and with iTunes it is a great place to be, why do these sites offer free services. check out www.downloadmusicforfreeonline.eu

What I have found that works quite well is to use PayPal's virtual credit card. It is like a MasterCard and as of now I have had no problems with the card being blocked in the U.S., though I did a couple of months ago. You pay from your PayPal balance and avoid the hassle of using your real credit card.

Are you kidding me? 3 cents per mb?? All you people who think this is a fair price for music have NEVER done the math of making music for public release. I produce records for a living. These days a quality product still costs at the VERY LEAST $5000 per song to produce. Most times $15,000 or more. I might recieve 1 to 2 percent of the sale. If 1,000,000 units are downloaded at $.15 per song, my cut is $1500 to $3000. ON A MILLION SELLER!! Do you think I can support my wife and 3 kids on that? My 30 years of producing music, the skills I have honed over all that time are now worth WAYYYY less than a day laborer. Listen Everyone...DO THE MATH!! You get what you pay for and if you want the kind of quality music you've come to expect sometime...somewhere...folks with talent and experience need to get paid. Quit justfying theft of intellectual property by hiding behind the fact that record labels make profit. The rest of us need to get paid too! Besides...when McDonalds makes a burger for 5 cents and charges you .99 cents for it...NOBODY COMPLAINS! THAT'S PROFIT!! We spend 15 grand recording plus the huge advertising and video budgets to promote a song and you complain about paying 99 cents?!? I know that you get way more joy out of playing your favorite song over and over than what you do outta that greasy burger. PLEASE give us in the music industry a break...We're doing our best to give all of you the best music we can produce...allow us the dignity of being able to provide for our families. STOP SUPPORTING ALLofMp3

The fact is that we don't want to support AllOfMp3. But do we have choice? As said before, only fools could ever buy DRM a protected music. Moreover, quality if really low on iTunes: slighly better than 128kbps AAC on AllOfMp3, but way worse than classic 320Kbps MP3s ! I can easily hear the difference with my Sennheiser HD-650! I use very expensive hifi hardware and don't care so much about prices if I know that I get what I paid for. If only I could buy high quality DRM-free MP3s from a legal website which supports artists, surely I would ! Who cares about other music format when there're so many MP3 players out there! Using 320kbps MP3s, high-end MP3 player and hearphones I get harmonic distortion less than 0.1% (comparing digital DAT source from end result)!

BK. There is NOTHING stopping you recording your own music and putting it on a website for people to download. There's nothing stopping ANY artist doing this, and a lot do. Stop wailing that artists only get a 1 or 2 per cent cut, and ask yourself where the other 98% goes. At the moment it goes to marketing, software engineers, CD mastering and distribution, and a whole bunch of ballyhoo that has nothing to do with playing music. Sure, if allofmp3 gave you 5% of a $0.15 you'd need 2 million downloads to get your $15,000 recording back. But if you put it on YOUR website and got people to pay $0.20, you'd need 75,000 to get your money back. I make 2% of a $12 CD to be $0.24, so you only need, for an album with 8 tracks, less than 10,000 people to pay for the whole thing before you'd be better off than if you'd given away 98% of your potential earning (what people will pay for your music) to others.

Yes, I haven't added in the costs of hosting, payment processing etc but don't say that alters the basic picture. DRM is an attempt to keep the revenue coming to the companies that are scared witless by disintermediation. As they should be :-)

this research is obvious to me, as I am an iPod owner, but have NEVER even gone to the iTunes store, because of their ridiculous prices of 99 cents. F*** Apple I say; use Allofmp3.com! More variety, better prices, and more complete discographies! They got it right in Russia!

Just to let everyone know, iTunes sold 1 bllion songs from 2001 to 2005. They sold 1 billion more songs in 2006! And I guess all you people who think $1 per song is too much must either not have a job, or you have entitlement issues. And Brother Gibb-you say F*** Apple, but you own an iPod!

BK, sorry to hear about your financial woes and not being able to support your family and all...but, um, our world is now a global economy, and given a choice between paying 21 cents for a song and 99 cents for a song, 99.9% of all buyers will pay 21 cents. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. So, either find yourself another career that pays better than the 21-cents-per-song industry, or live within your 21-cents-per-song budget. I love ALLOFMP3 and will never buy a song from another paysite for as long as ALLOFMP3 is up and running...and selling songs for 21 cents.

Roseina,
If you were to buy a CD, the average cost of a song is about $1, which is on par with iTunes. HOWEVER, the overhead and costs associated with producing a CD are much higher than digital music, so why should the consumer pay the same price for a less expensive product? Once a digital music file is available for sale, there are no further costs involved. No packaging, no factory costs, no labor costs. Yet you ARE STILL BEING CHARGED for it. Furthermore, it shouldn't cost five to ten thousand dollars to build your music collection. Its called economics and fair trade - look into it.

I've spent almost $400US on here, thats more than I've probably spent in total on CDs in the past. It's not that I dont like music, I just hate feeling ripped off. If the music industry still claims that that is the cost of making a CD, then they need to find a way to make production cheaper, they can't resist the pressure of Internet users forever...

I am definitely not a power collector of songs, but the reason I used allofmp3 quite a lot is that they offer a really special and exquisite range of songs which I just couldn't find anywhere else. Neither online nor on CD. There are so many local artists and small bands (I can speak at least for Europe) in the archive, and additionally nearly forgotten classic songs, uncommon movie scores and so on... Really great. I'm not a music mainstream guy, and that's the reason I'm a fan of Allofmp3. Man, I already enjoy the mere browsing through the archive... During this, I even found a lot of interesting bands I never heard of but which matched my taste perfectly. I'm quite sure these bands (like e.g. Scandinavian or MiddleEuropean... mythical-middleages-like music) won't be found on those mass music providers like iTunes...

BUT: Does anyone of you know current rumours (or facts) about this Russian governmental decision which will be due in the first half of the year I think? IIRC, they were pressured by the US to enforce more restrictions to music distribution rights. There was something with ... not allowing the Russians to enter the World Trade Organization or something like that if they "don't follow the(ir) rules"... wasn't it? (Sorry, I really forgot the details or a weblink...)

This is by far the best music download site, so lets all keep on using it -- spread the word & blow Apple out of the water!!.

I have found that Rhapsody has a larger data base of songs, but asking you to join with a membership of 9.95 a month and then to purchase tracks at .99 cents a song is ridiculous. I may have misunderstood, but either way a membership fee is out of the question. Rhapsody isn't an affiliate of AllofMP3 are they? If so, oooops, but I still wouldn't join Rhapsody.

Not all songs are worth .99 cents.

Out of the billions of songs out there, most of them are barely worth a penny but there are plenty of songs I'd pay $15 or more to own. I'm tired of this noise that every track on a CD is equal in price.

I say, all band/artist's websites should display a 'tip' link. For instance, a simple 'PayPal' type link that says, "Hey, if you our song and really liked it, throw us a buck or two. Thanks!"

I mean if a friend already has a song, why must I go somewhere else to get the exact same copy. I should be able to make a copy and if I like it, I would go to the tips link and pay what I think it is worth. Even if I only 'tip' them .99 cents that is far more than they would ever recieve from the music industry. From there, if the band really liked the producer, they can pass a percentage up the chain. This process could continue all the way up. Hence, my money now directly goes to the person or people I connected with.

Someone tell me this, since I don't own an iPod. If you buy a song from iTunes and it sucks, can you return it to get your money back or trade it for a better song? Since it has the DRM on it, seems like you should. Most things are returnable these days if they suck. Even if you get a sucky burger from McDonald's you can demand a better burger or get your money back. If they are going to apply the DRM, then that transaction model should now apply.

[So if you know any bands, tell them to start adding 'tip' links.]

I used to be a Rhapsody subscriber, but I left it in disgust. Yes, their database of songs is relatively rich, but you pay $14.95 a month for Rhapsody to go, then you pay for individual songs only to find out that after a few months your rights to the songs expired. Besides, the process of downloading from Rhapsody to my Creative Vision:M player was a pain in the neck.
Somebody raised a problem of musicians being reimbursed for their work. Isn't their "reimbursement" a little bit overblown? All the people I know work their asses off daily and they only live from paycheck to paycheck. The musical "stars" on the other hand, produce from two to a dozen hit albums in their life-time and expect to live off them like kings for the rest of their lives - at our expense! This is ripoff. Then the poor Michael Jackson, who hasn't produced anything of value in years, has a problem of paying for his life style of a prince, so he wants you to pay more to the record companies.
As for the Mastercard and Visa boycotting AllOfMP3, I think that we, the users, should start making calls to credit card companies and threaten that we will be boycotting the cards which boycott AllOfMP3!

To the guy who is struggling to support his family. I think you have it wrong.

You dont have to spend $5000 per song. If you were signed to any decent recored label, they would cover the costs. If you were covering the costs of recording your own album you would be getting all of the profit.

The record companies are the rip offs and thats the simple truth. They take all the profits and give you 0.50 cents per album... and they take the rest (whats that $9.50). They take that to cover their recording costs ...

You are lying and thats the simple truth...

I have been laughing for the whole 22 minutes I've been reading this blog. A thanks to all for your comments!

To David Post #85, I agree with almost everything you said except the part about "no further costs involved." Hosting an MP3 download service isn't free. You need to pay someone to build, operate, and monitor your website and client software (iTunes). You also need to pay a good deal for the bandwith necessary to handle hundreds of thousands of downloads a day. Granted, it may not be as much as publishing an actual CD, but the cost is real and someone has to pay for it. All of the employees that operate iTunes, AllofMp3, and the like need to get paid, so there are definitely "futher costs involved."

It's to freaking expensive, even though I tried to buy from there sometimes I can't find songs that I want. So I have to find it in other ways. Itunes sucks period.

maybe they should stop offering craptastic quality downloads for an ugodly price and they might make some money ... allofmp3 has obviously shown the world that they know how to service the music download community

Hi all, im only new to allofmp3 (6mths) and have loved all the new albums i have downloaded, a lot of which are not available here in Australia. Some of the artist i that i have I've already paid in excess of $34.95 for an imported cd at local shops for an average of 12-14 tracks, untill i discovered allofmp3.
I have probably spent approximately $140 on this site and have downloaded SO many albums that are not here and can not get in Aust, so allofmp3 gets my vote.

But now with the credit card issues on allofmp3 I'm struggling to find a way to top up my balance, I've read all of the blogs above and have tried them to now avail, can anyone please help with any suggestions on how i can get around this problem? I used to use the Xrost system but even now that is no good and if you read on the allofmp3 site it says "It is not possible to buy a Certificate in any other way neither by using the money on your account nor with a Xrost gift certificate" so no credit card and no gift voucher?
What do i do???
Cheers

So, is there any remaining method to refill a balance?

i am with the last two people what is it with payment for songs to refill balance