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Really, then how does AllOfMP3 offer this for their Online Encoding Exclusives? Their Online Encoding Exclusives library seems to be the majority of their music, and they offer it in MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, FLAC, Monkey's Audio, and WAV format. They seem to transcode the WAV file to whatever format the buyer chooses.

Regardless of how you feel about AllOfMP3's compliance with copyright law, you can't deny that they have much less computing power than Apple with iTunes or Amazon, and yet they figured out how to do this without breaking the bank.

AllofMP3 can't help the fact that the RIAA refuses to take the money that is due to them from ROMS.

allofmp3.com would like to thank you for your business. It knows you have no choice in DRMless online retailers who offer high quality files without DRM at a good price (well, with the exception of magnatune, but they have a limited catalog), and appreciate your choosing them for your online music needs.

We need a central site, lots of sources of music people want to listen to (not what they SHOULD want to listen to, mind you, but what they DO want to listen to - no running people down for their (lack of) taste), and quality control that people can trust. When THAT emerges, DRM will become too much of a liability.

It has emerged. It's called allofmp3.com. Rather than trying to shut it down, they should be looking at it closely and emulating it. And if Russians can get stupid US patents, then they should grab 'how to do a good job of selling music online' if they haven't already.

Not to sound like a spokesperson for the movie industry, but their only options are:
1. Agressivley protect their content with DRM and lawsuits
2. Go out of business

They will probably go out of business anyway, and are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The way it will look in some years is probably:
1. Few movie budgets over say $1M. Just no ROI
2. No mega rich movie stars.
3. No mega rich rock stars.
4. most content is direct from producer to you. See youtube

This is probably overall good and will not kill the music or movies. We will probably see an exponential growth in sophisticated works of art available for a fair price. See http://allofmp3.com/ for example

On AllOfMP3 you can, yes.

Sure, if you consider the dozen-plus clicks you need to download an album (not to mention the time you need to put in to fix the janky Soviet lack of ID3 tags--everything is "Blues", no track numbers, no artist, all 's are `s... it's a pain, especially the track #s) a competitive advantage. Also, they have a total of maybe half a million tracks--the legit stores are pushing 5 million.

AllOfMP3 is great for new releases/singles (oooo!) and drunk-downloading as many fucking Rod Stewart songs as you can fit on your HD, but is way too esoteric and high-maintenance to be the only place to buy music. (Also, I'm not enamored of their JavaScripty redesign. Why can't people leave well enough alone?)

(Oh, and not to mention that it's pretty breathtakingly illegal, and I don't even know how to fill up my account anymore... damn Visa.)

Someday the music will triumph and everyone will be spending tons of money on dirt-cheap uncompressed DRM-free albums that are more cost-effective to pay for than pirate, and the world will be a better place. SJ's article indicates that he wants it to happen just as much as you and me do--and that makes me optimistic that this is not just a vain hope.

Sure, if you consider the dozen-plus clicks you need to download an album (not to mention the time you need to put in to fix the janky Soviet lack of ID3 tags--everything is "Blues", no track numbers, no artist, all 's are `s... it's a pain, especially the track #s) a competitive advantage. Also, they have a total of maybe half a million tracks--the legit stores are pushing 5 million.

AllOfMP3 is great for new releases/singles (oooo!) and drunk-downloading as many fucking Rod Stewart songs as you can fit on your HD, but is way too esoteric and high-maintenance to be the only place to buy music. (Also, I'm not enamored of their JavaScripty redesign. Why can't people leave well enough alone?)

(Oh, and not to mention that it's pretty breathtakingly illegal, and I don't even know how to fill up my account anymore... damn Visa.)

Someday the music will triumph and everyone will be spending tons of money on dirt-cheap uncompressed DRM-free albums that are more cost-effective to pay for than pirate, and the world will be a better place. SJ's article indicates that he wants it to happen just as much as you and me do--and that makes me optimistic that this is not just a vain hope.

The important bit is that the law enforcement agencies never got their hands on the records of the 22 Million innocent people (including mine, as I own a German credit card). I don't mind the fact that the banks did a search on their own database.

Really? That's great!! Because our next search is going to be on all accounts that have ever purchased anything from allofmp3.com. You know, that legal in Russia but illegal in Germany website that sells MP3s from RIAA artists without consent or royalty payments. You wouldn't happen to be a previous customer of theirs... would you? Don't worry, we'll know soon enough. Besides, two years jail time isn't really all that bad.

AllofMp3 offers 20% bonus untill January 14, 2007

compared to legal video sales. The largest target continues to be adult oriented content and TV shows,

Pirated TV shows, eh? Anyone surprised? It's the content provider's fault, and its their problem. No sympathy here. The reason it's pirated so much is that there's no viable alternative. VERY few shows, except a few tokens available on iTunes (The Office, etc), can't be bought legally until the season finishes and the DVD comes out. If it comes out. Months later.
So let's say the DVDs come out. Most shows are $40 a season!! The few episodes available for download cost a whopping $1.99. So however I buy it, chances are, I'm looking at $2 per episode, for something I'm probably only going to watch once. What a ripoff! I mean, I really like Lost, but once you find out what happens in the end, there really isn't much value in rewatching it (IMO). Therefore, it's not quite comparable in value to me purchasing one of my favorite movies on DVD that I'll likely watch over and over again. Sure I could rent it, but that's kind of a pain in the ass. And that doesn't even address technical issues.
I buy my favorite music online, I can buy it in a format that doesn't suck. With mp3, it Plays for Sure (tm) on my iPod, or God forbid off-brand mp3 player. Let's say I decide to buck up for a DVD of one of my favorite TV Shows. Now I have to deal with DVD player region crap. Can I just put it on my PSP/iPod Video, etc? Apparently not. That seems to be illegal under the DMCA. Well, maybe if I pay extra money for it at the time of purchase. Sounds like a crappy deal to me.

So let's recap. I'm a (relatively) honest consumer looking to watch my favorite show because I missed it on TV. It's overpriced, I have to wait as long as months to get it, it's overpriced, I'm probably only going to watch it once, it's overpriced, it comes in a crappy format, and I can't copy it (legally), and I can't put it on my mobile device. Piracy to the rescue! Any questions?

compared to legal video sales. The largest target continues to be adult oriented content and TV shows,

Pirated TV shows, eh? Anyone surprised? It's the content provider's fault, and its their problem. No sympathy here. The reason it's pirated so much is that there's no viable alternative. VERY few shows, except a few tokens available on iTunes (The Office, etc), can't be bought legally until the season finishes and the DVD comes out. If it comes out. Months later.
So let's say the DVDs come out. Most shows are $40 a season!! The few episodes available for download cost a whopping $1.99. So however I buy it, chances are, I'm looking at $2 per episode, for something I'm probably only going to watch once. What a ripoff! I mean, I really like Lost, but once you find out what happens in the end, there really isn't much value in rewatching it (IMO). Therefore, it's not quite comparable in value to me purchasing one of my favorite movies on DVD that I'll likely watch over and over again. Sure I could rent it, but that's kind of a pain in the ass. And that doesn't even address technical issues.
I buy my favorite music online, I can buy it in a format that doesn't suck. With mp3, it Plays for Sure (tm) on my iPod, or God forbid off-brand mp3 player. Let's say I decide to buck up for a DVD of one of my favorite TV Shows. Now I have to deal with DVD player region crap. Can I just put it on my PSP/iPod Video, etc? Apparently not. That seems to be illegal under the DMCA. Well, maybe if I pay extra money for it at the time of purchase. Sounds like a crappy deal to me.

So let's recap. I'm a (relatively) honest consumer looking to watch my favorite show because I missed it on TV. It's overpriced, I have to wait as long as months to get it, it's overpriced, I'm probably only going to watch it once, it's overpriced, it comes in a crappy format, and I can't copy it (legally), and I can't put it on my mobile device. Piracy to the rescue! Any questions?

AllofMP3 typically charges under $1 for an entire album and just cents per track. By contrast, an album at Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and other licensed services typically costs about $10 and a song 99 cents.

The faqs at allofmp3 seem to detail and debate the various laws involved..

Link to FAQ

AllOfMP3.com is still very active. Visa has stopped allowing payments from the US to them, but that's not very surprising. They did the same with online gambling, while the overseas gambling sites are still very much in existence.

Russia is planning to join the WTO though, and in the process may be enacting legislation to satisfy American trade organizations, because essentially, that's what the WTO does to other sovereign nations. At that time, which is sometime not that soon, it may or may not become illegal for AllOfMp3.com to operate under new Russian legislation. That is up to Russia to decide, obviously.

You can read their legal FAQs for more info:
http://www.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993&d =18191974
http://music.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993 &d=12886483

AllOfMP3.com is still very active. Visa has stopped allowing payments from the US to them, but that's not very surprising. They did the same with online gambling, while the overseas gambling sites are still very much in existence.

Russia is planning to join the WTO though, and in the process may be enacting legislation to satisfy American trade organizations, because essentially, that's what the WTO does to other sovereign nations. At that time, which is sometime not that soon, it may or may not become illegal for AllOfMp3.com to operate under new Russian legislation. That is up to Russia to decide, obviously.

You can read their legal FAQs for more info:
http://www.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993&d =18191974
http://music.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993 &d=12886483

The bottom line, in layman's terms, is that it's not easy to break into any established market as an "average Joe", even if Joe is a smart, well-educated and creative individual, or set of individuals. If it were, we wouldn't see commerce in the world largely being driven by global corporations, and corner shop greengrocers would be effectively competing with the Wal-Marts of the world. There's plenty of smarts in the world, but capitalism rewards having lots of money and existing corporate structures far more than "smarts".

Easy - they're almost unknown to the general public. I certainly hadn't heard of them before you mentioned them.

Just to make it even more difficult for them - those in the know enough to know about Magnatunes also probably know about AllOfMp3... having a direct competitor at a quarter of the price (with a really usable service, too) hurts badly.

They pay their artists half of the sale price... do you think that's their mistake? Do you think they should go the allofmp3 route and pay artists nothing, then sell albums for $2.50 each?

AllOfMp3 pay royalties that, under Russian copyright law and the regulations of the non-profit organisations that regulate them (FAIR and ROMS), can be claimed by any relevant copyright owner. The royalties are 15% (see the AllOfMp3 legality FAQ, which is an interesting read). We could debate whether 15% is reasonable (even AllOfMp3 admit they are considering paying another 5% directly to the artist), but it's not really fair to say that they pay the artists nothing.

Lets say I downloaded David Gilmour album, did Mr. Gilmour get a cent?

Let's say you bought a David Gilmour CD from a second-hand store. Did he get a cent then? Or say you recorded it off the radio. Did he get a cent then?

The answer's 'No' in both cases. And yet both cases are completely legal. (At least, I'm pretty sure they are in most jurisdictions.) Arguably, they're both moral and ethical, too. So no, I don't think whether the artists recieve money directly is the only issue here.

That second example, by the way, is particularly relevant, because AIUI Allofmp3 is licensed in Russia effectively as a broadcaster. And, under that, it pays 15% of its takings to the Russian Licensing Societies. That may not amount to as much as they'd get from a physical album sale, true, but they do pay. (It's hardly Allofmp3's fault that the recording companies refuse on principle to collect, is it?)

So, our right to get robbed with a fake legit site and artists not getting anything at all

There's nothing fake about it. Up until now, at least, Allofmp3 has been completely legal in Russia -- chapter and verse here. (Despite this agreement claiming otherwise.) At one point, the Russian authorities started legal proceedings, but gave them up before it came to court because they couldn't find any evidence. And, as I said above, Allofmp3 is doing it's bit in getting 15% of the takings to the copyright owners. So both claims are wrong. It might not be the way that US and European music stores work, but up to now it's been completely legal and above-board in Russia.

Up until now...

Ah well. Bang goes just about my only source of music over the last several years. Bang goes just about my only source for discovering new sounds, for trying out new artists, for finding new styles and old favourites. And bang goes just about my only vain hope that the US authorities have a shred of decency and aren't acting purely in their own narrow, biased, unfair, and immoral self-interest.

We could of course wonder what he thinks of allofmp3.com from a musician's position.

More relevant question would be about one's opinion on the present copyright regime in Russia, since AllOfMp3.com seems to have been operating in accordance with Russian copyright laws. I personally think that this "lax" regime (explained in sufficient detail on http://www.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993&d =18191974) may be appropriate, but not from the moment of creation of an artistic work. I'm for a relatively short period (say, 10 years) of strict enforcement of a limited set of rights (that can restrict only distribution to others, but not any usage), followed by a relatively long period (say, 50 years) of lax enforcement similar to the one we have in current legislation (which will be soon superceded by the IV part of Civil Code).

We haven't heard of you a while. Artem, I'd be glad if you contact me.

Yep, I will.

From TFA:

attesting that popular music sound recording downloads and consumer license to use same are lawfully obtainable to the public at 99 cents per song, and of that 99 cents, roughly 70 cents per song is paid by the retailer to the record label.

I don't understand where this $0.70 comes from. There is the Chinese site which has legal downloads cheaper than allofmp3.com, and they have the support of the IFPI. So, my question then is why does a $0.70 sale in the US equal a $0.05 sale in China? And, if they offered a legal service like that over here (without the DRM) wouldn't piracy dissapear overnight?

At about the time that allofmp3.com lost their credit card charging rights, I started to receive this spam at an address I set up just for their service announcements. Nobody else has it, so it's clear that allofmp3 monetized their email address list.

Does that mean now that I have paid the royalty fees I can now download music all to my heart's desire?

Without it, there would be no music stores with major artists [major labels] who expect to get paid.

and iTunes is the only thing that works with it.

Sweden

How about Russia?

It is one thing for an American organisation like the RIAA to sue those in the US, but how likely is it that they will really chase people in, say, Australia, where I am? You have to understand I would never engage in illegal P2P activities myself (GULP) but just wondering if there is anywhere the RIAA won't go. Does it mean you are unsueable if you are downloading songs via a proxy based in another country?

On the same matter, is it really true that it is legal to engage in copying songs in Russia, and that websites like allofmp3.com are in fact legal?

Well, I have to weigh in again here.

Mr. Beckerman:

The site AllOfMP3.com, which operates in Russia under Russian law, claims on their site that the music they sell is completely legal - in Russia. Others must judge according to the laws of their country.

I believe the original question was asking for an opinion as to whether the music files obtained from that site would be legal in another country, such as perhaps the USA. We are all quite aware that the legalities are in flux. Indeed, most of us understand the word "flux" without looking it up.

If you like, you may look up the notices on the aforementioned website - see the section "Is it legal to download music from site AllOFMP3.com?"

cheers,
iceaxe

...Stan Ridgeway tracks.
http://music.allofmp3.com/mp3/Stan_Ridgway/group_6 603/albref_14/mcatalog.shtml

http://www.mp3sugar.com/ recently raised their price for albums/CD 91%. From $0.99 to ~$1.87 I think. For an outfit that pretends to pay royalties that takes balls. Anyone have a cheaper alternative? Especially for Trance lovers? http://allofmp3.com/ is not on my top of the list.

What's the position of Americans who buy from legal offshore music sites, such as allofmp3?. Is this safer than downloading "free"?

just don't think I could bring myself to go into a shop and ask for an OGG player without sounding like a caveman.

You could just ask for a Vorbis player, which is the actual Audio format within the OGG container.

And about all those MP3, you would only have to re-rip and encode them from your original CD source (you DO have the original CD no?), or tell your preffered e music store to offer them as OGG instead of MP3 (some music stores already do that).

If you wanted cheap music, at least an ablbum at a time, borrowing or buying used CDs, ripping them yourself then returning ( or re-selling ) them is an option.

I hadn't heard of fictionwise, but I had heard of their competitor, http://www.baen.com./ They were the first company to give books away for free, and I suspect they did drm-free before fictionwise, too. I have read at least half of their free books, and they are pretty darned good. I've also bought quite a few from them now, as they were sequels to the ones I read for free.

I could simply have stolen them from usenet. Instead, I paid for them because I like the company, I like their products, and it was the right thing to do.

I will -never- buy DRM protected books. I will use the -shudder- library first.

On the same note... http://www.allofmp3.com/ sells drm-free music. We ALL know how easy it is to steal music, and yet they manage to sell it. Price and convenience, plus the fact that nobody really -wants- to steal. (Well, except mentally-deficient people.) A combination of pressures (monetary, etc) forces them to. I won't even go into that. Everyone has their reasons and very few 'just felt like it.'

DRM-free content CAN WORK. It just has to be the right price with the right customer service, convenience, etc.

I am boycotting AOL and will instead continue to download music from AllOfMP3.com. The artists don't get any money from my investment, but I would be happy to donate some money if only they'd set up a PayPal donation box on their site or something.

I'm interested in how to buy music and play music from iTunes Music Store(ITMS) from within Linux. Is this for real or is this iTunes on Wine and a lot of pain?

I'm interested in the video recording as well. Is this desktop video application or is this Flash via VNC?

My interest is piqued but, not enough to spend $30 to find out that it's just Windows apps running on Wine.

The problem is the music industry does not allow anyone else to sell in a less restricted format.

Now if we can just get rid of all the proprietary DRM that has become a bigger plague than any of the piracy, the world will truly be a better place.

i'm interested to see how they would set up a legal music downloading system with absolutely no DRM wrapper

Perhaps like emusic.com, or magnatune.com, or allofmp3.com? Why must there be a DRM wrapper? Everything on iTunes is aready available FOR FREE on P2P networks, yet iTunes is still selling millions and millions of songs.

also, does their language seem...well, a little orwellian?

The language sounds Orwellian, as it should. DRM is not about combating piracy. DRM about control, private property, rights of first sale, free speech, and personal freedom-- all subjects about which Orwell wrote very eloquently.

Oh wait...The US is trying to shut that down and holding Russian membership to the WTO as a precondition...And the UK threatening to sue them...Get em while you can.

karem

They even allow you to pay you through smart ATMs (which usually allow you to pay any cellphone provider bill, banking bill etc from a single machine): http://music.allofmp3.com/osmp.shtml
However I, as a Russian citizen believe that a very small percentage of Russian mp3 downloaders use the service. mp3s, movies, games and software are usually obtained in LANs (which also act as ISPs). My LAN for example has something like 2 terabytes of pirated content. Even people who can afford a licensed copy of Windows (spend less than 5% of their income for Windows XP) buy it pirated. I know a guy who has a fairly large income but he always says that legal WinXP is too expensive for him. The only people who seem to be using a legal copy of Windows are corporate users who are afraid of MS's legal department. Because of that, only Windows and Office (and a bunch of small apps) are thanslated into Russian.

Is it legal to download music from AllOFMP3.com? The availability over the Internet of the ALLOFMP3.com materials is authorized by the license # LS-3?-05-03 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) and license # 006/3M-05 of the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively (FAIR). In accordance to the licenses' terms MediaServices pays license fees for all materials downloaded from the site subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All these materials are solely for personal use. Any further distribution, resale or broadcasting are prohibited. The works available from ALLOFMP3.com are protected by the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights" and are for personal use of a buyer. Commercial use of such material is prohibited. Recording, copying, distribution on any media is possible only upon special consent of a Rightholder. The user bears sole responsibility for any use and distribution of all materials received from AllOFMP3.com. This responsibility is dependent on the national legislation in each user's country of residence. The Administration of AllOFMP3.com does not possess information on the laws of each particular country and is not responsible for the actions of foreign users. http://music.allofmp3.com/help/help.shtml?help=on# top

Actually, there's Russian AOMP3 site: http://account.allofmp3.com/shares/setencode.html? changeencode_mss=RUS

Nothing illegal about allofmp3.com at all; that's why the record pigopolists are up in arms about it.

I'm an Emusic subscriber and love them, but there are LOTS of legal services out there, these days, selling good ol' MP3s (or even FLAC/OGG) with no DRM

• audiolunchbox.com
• mp3tunes.com
• Many record labels like Magnatune and Bleep
• and the somewhat-legal allofmp3.com for the major-label stuff.

We keep a full list of them at cdbaby.net/dd-partners (in 10 languages!). Though that list is meant mainly for our musician clients, it's a good permalink for a constantly-updating list of digital music sellers, with a short description of each.

There is also allofmp3 which one can use.

If I heard something on XM and liked it, I'd probably run out and buy it on a released CD so I wouldn't have to listen to all the compression artifacts.

Me too, if I couldn't find it at http://allofmp3.com/ or http://musicmp3.ru/ *cough*.

The Russian Mafia has just what you're looking for.

> ...iTunes is necessary, but ONLY to buy songs...

Not really, you'll really want to use a more open format like.. say.. ogg or even mp3, which seems to be more universal.

I reccommend all of mp3 for music purchases, because it doesn't try to lock you into a single player, a single portable music player etc. Plus you can use the site from any OS, Windows, Linux, Macosx, Amigaos etc. It seems Apple likes to descriminate against the OSS community often. Not releasing Linux software, yet releasing software for the operating system they keep 'dissing' (as the Mac guy in the ads would probably call it).

It's five plays, not five songs; but you're right -- it's quite inferior to alternatives such as IRC and allofmp3.com.

I'd have to agree. I look at it like buying music CDs. I used to buy a CD for $15, but then I found Napster, and then peer to peer, but it became a hassle and I didn't want to put the time in. Then there was Itunes, but the price was about the same as just buying the CD. Then I found (on Slashdot) http://www.allofmp3.com./ I don't mind paying for the stuff, I just don't want to spend a lot, or have it be a hassle, there has to be a happy medium for movies. I think it's gonna be when cable companies do movies on demand for:

$20 a month watch all you want or $1 a day watch all you want, or 25 cents watch that movie all day. Something along those lines would get you a lot of customers.