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I've never understood the desire to pay $.99/song or $9.99/album for crapticularly compressed songs that are tied to a single platform. Sure, for a one-off piece of fluff that you want to listen to a couple dozen times it's not bad, but in any other scenario, it's nuts. Buy.com is at least offering 256K downloads (still DRMed), but unless you go to a dodgy site like AllOfMP3 (which is worse, it's quasi-legality or its crappy rips?), or happen to like one of the artists at Magnatune, you're SOL if you want lossless, archivable music.

I'd happily pay for downloadable music if it was cheap ($.25/song) and lossless and had no-DRM or very loose DRM. The business model can work (look at Magnatune), but it's going to require a different kind of music industry. Eventually, I think the music industry will get there, but it's gonna be a painful process, and we'll end up with crap like DCMA and the like on our backs forever. Bah.

I've been using allofmp3.com, a music download site in Russia. You pay $.01 per megabyte. You can preview all their music (in very low quality) before you download to see if you like something or not.

Most of their collection also gives you the ability to choose a custom encoding, such as MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WMV, and maybe some others (I just go with OGG). You can select the bitrates of your own choosing to give you a comprimise between quality and size (since they charge per megabyte).

Why would anyone want to use any other download service? Its legal (although frowned upon by the RIAA) and has no anti-consumer DRM restrictions.

They even take PayPal!

allofmp3.com is the perfect music store.

Be sure to use their Explorer. It makes searching and previewing very easy.

I would like to be able to sample a song for at least a minute though being able to stream the whole song would be nice. Thirty seconds is not long enough, a minute would do.

ALLOFMP3 occasionally tosses out an oldie album for free. That is a nice marketing touch. This wouldn't be necessary but I would probably check back more often to see what promotions were ongoing.

I like my downloads to be unencumbered mp3. No DRM. If I am only paying fifty-cents per song I don't have a lot of incentive to cheat. It sounds like a lot to ask by DRM is a scourge. An ideal music source would also have all of the major labels and quite a bit of the balance. Not asking for much, am I?

-erick

Try: All of MP3 It's what I use.

http://www.allofmp3.com/ is great. Except for the legality issues. Enjoy it while it lasts.

All downloaded music from the site was quote "able to be used in a full broadcast and media capacity".

All the materials are available solely for personal use and must not be used for further distribution, resale or broadcasting.

AllOfMp3.com is $0.01 per Mb, and they have *everything*, legally, at any bitrate, in any format. There's a link on their page somewhere to translate into English (from the parent company's Russian)

So you read their blurb then launch in to speculation about what they might be and get modded insightful?

Anyway, if you consider buying albums and they have something you like then it is a good deal compared to most of the competition. The 50 free for two weeks is a) true b) a great deal if you see something you'd really like.

I had an account with emusic ages ago when they not only provided a fancy Linux d/l client but also offered unlimited downloads for $9.99 a month. As it happens I love music and really like checking out a lot of different music, this was a great opportunity to explore a lot of jazz and ethnic music that I wouldn't have been comfortable paying big money for.

Anyway, the unlimited d/ls ended and now its 40 for $9.99 or 90 for $19.99. My point is, they have an alright selection for what they are and all they are is another choice (probably even more importantly, a choice with out crippling DRM). Sometimes they are the best deal going, it just depends on what your looking for.

For your Dead try allofmp3.com. I see 15 album listed, all 100% DRM free.

I mean just because a cd sells for $15 at retail center A and then the same album retails online at retail center B (with DRM and lower quality encoding) for $5 less doesn't mean doesn't make B a good deal. The author is obviously saying he's not comfortable paying $10 per album and I think there has been more then enough posts pointing out that the cost of manufacturing and distributing a compact disk is out of balance with the retail price.

The only thing I'd fault the author for is failing to mention another mp3 (wav/flac/ogg) retailer:

allofmp3.com

Aside from not using DRM of any kind they charge by the megabyte, for a 192k encoded album I pay on average about $.70. And they sell all the Top 40 crap everyones alway complaining groovy company B can't provide.

If more music companies considered pricing more similar to allofmp3 (if record companies let them) they would easily make up in volume what they lost in premium. Paying pennies for good music is better economics then paying nothing for low quality rips via p2p.

Magnatune and allofmp3 both support a lot more formats, including lossless and MP3's using known-good lame presets. 25c per track? I'd rather pay more for something good.. pretty please?

I think allofmp3.com is still a better deal.

You pay by MB or about $0.03 per song. Fits my shopping style.

that I've been using are both based in Russia.

http://reg.allofmp3.com/shares/setencode.html?chan geencode_mss=ENG
($5 per 1GB of downloads)

http://3mp3.ru/eng
($5 per month unlimited downloads)

You pay $.01 per megabyte. A typical CD seems to run about one dollar.

I make no assumptions regarding how legal this is.

The site is in Russia and the credit card processor is in the US. I "charged" my account with $15 and I've downloaded about 15 CD's so far and I still have about 4 bucks left. They have EVERYTHING and you choose the file format and type of encoding. It encodes the files in real time when you order the song(s).

I'm stocking up because I assume this won't be available for long.

Full disclosure: I have no connection with the site other than as a customer.

-Lee

The poster has forgotten my favorite quasi-legal russian music service, http://www.allofmp3.com/

They have no DRM what so ever, so it's great for you Linux users. Also, it's based in Russia, so it lends itself to those classic Slashdot "In Soviet Russia..." jokes. (In Soviet Russia, Music DRM You!", sorry, the lamest I could come up with)

It also has the most complete catalog (including Beatles), is priced right at $0.01 US per megabyte, and has a multitude of on-the-fly encoding options, including ogg Vorbis, Flac and mp3 up to 384 kbps. (however, I think FLAC and other "premium" encodes runs you $0.05 US per megabyte).

Suposedly it's perfectly legal under Russian copyright law, as long as they compensate the artist directly. Perhaps it's just paying for illegal music downloads that you could otherwise get off Kazaa.

This sounds like good news to me. If this succeeds, it's just another nail in the coffin for RIAA and their overpriced, bullshit CDs. Hopefully once MS and Apple kill off the RIAA by burdening them with DRM and outcompeting them with online sales, I'll be able to get real music at decent prices without having to import it from russia.

I wish there was a non-DRM music store, too
Click English at the top left. I use it, it's great. I've downloaded over 100 songs on $10 (At 192 VBR, but you can select higher/lower quality, you pay by bandwidth). I love the Russian economy. Feel free to copy and paste the link, there's no referrer tag.

I just get my Beatles tunes (and anything else for that matter) from http://allofmp3.com/. Works pretty well and i can choice any format i want!

...Or instead of waiting months for tracks 'coming soon', you could get them somewhere better. Cheaper, sooner, any format you like, and no restrictions on use.

</plug>

...Or instead of waiting months for tracks 'coming soon', you could get them somewhere better. Cheaper, sooner, any format you like, and no restrictions on use.

</plug>

The best service I've found for this kind of thing is allofmp3.com. You can encode music as at any bitrate (you can pick custom bitrates and it does on the fly encoding), in any format (mp3/wma/ogg/mpeg-4/mpc/lossless) including downloading the original cd data.

It costs $10 per GB you download and is legal (because of strange Russian copyright laws).

"Question

How much does it cost to download music at AllOFMP3.com?

The price of the files that you download is determined by the quality of the file you choose to download. The price is determined by the file size and type.

The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as VIP or Online Encoding is 0.01 USD.

The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as Online Encoding Exclusive is 0.02 USD.

You will not be charged for previewing tracks are for the encoding process itself.

Note: All media that is available with OEEX are also available for download in regular encoding format."

- From the Payments section of help

This is Slashdot. If you (or the Russians) don't know the difference between bits (b) and bytes (B), than I suggest you (or the Russians) fark off and quit acting like your advertising for AllOFMP3.com!

MB is commonly used when referring to a file size. However, corporations routinely use Mb as a marketing leverage. In this case, slip in Mb and suddenly the price is cut by a factor of 8. Download speeds are increased by a factor of 8 when you refer to them as Kb instead of KB.

1 MB = 8 Mb
5 MB = 40 Mb
...therefore
40 Mb @ $0.01 / Mb = $0.40 (files marked as VIP or Online Encoding)
40 Mb @ $0.02 / Mb = $0.80 (files marked as Online Encoding Exclusive)

P.S. Don't come crying to me when you find out that you just downloaded a 23 min long Pink Floyd song and it comes to ~$2.60 (or even $5.20 for that matter).

Apple and Microsoft are second rate services.

After using allofmp3.com I would never use anything else.

Pay per MB.

No DRM

Very large (but admitidly incomplete) collection.

Songs encoded as you order them. Choose from MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, and more.

I spent more in 2 hours at the site than I have in my entire life previously. When you are paying $.001 a megabyte that is saying something.

And if you're the record company, in Soviet Russia everyone raids YOU!

Either they claim mp3 as a choice even though no popular music is sold in mp3 format

$5 you were ripped.

Try allofmp3.com where an album costs around 60 cents, comes in any format or bit rate you want and has absoltely no DRM at all ever.

I love my iPod and my 3 Macs but why anyone would buy from iTMS (or Real) when there's allofmp3 I don't know.

But I think that, in the long run, that's irrelevant. We have to consider each issue on its own merits.

Regardless of what Real may have done in the past, and regardless of their current motives, what they're actually doing right now gets my approval. Yes, I'm an Apple fan; I love my iPod, and rip all my CDs to AAC. I try to steer clear of any of Real's proprietary formats. But none of this blinds me to the current issue, which is whether Apple has the moral or legal right to lock up its platform -- to become a monopoly provider. And I personally think it doesn't. I'll still be suspicious of Real's future actions, and I'll still have a warm feeling for Apple, but I'd much prefer a world in which platforms like the iPod are open, and many companies provide music for it, than one in which new monopolies are so easily created and protected.

Mind you, this is all irrelevant for me personally. Although the iTMS is finally available here in the UK, these days I get most of my music from AllOfMP3, which is more than an order of magnitude cheaper, and gives me DRM-free files in the format and bitrate of my choosing!

• Music by the meg
• You buy in blocks of 500 megs for $5 USD (yes, that right, it's a penny a meg!)
• Choice of encoding type, including MP3, OGG, PCM-WAV and FLAC
• Despite it's price, it's a 100% legal site run out of Russia

I just found out about this place yesterday. I haven't bought anything from them yet, but music by the pound in nearly any damned format I want sounds good to me!

Check out the Sydney Morning Hearld article for more info. I really can't believe we here at /. missed this in April!?

Legal, DRM free multi-encoded files, and cheaper than iTunes or Real. All at http://www.allofmp3.com/. I believe that it is the top comercial music download site in Europe.

I've been a RealRhapsody and Napster subscriber for a while, and have gotten annoyed with having DRM even after I purchase a song to keep "forever".

Recently I bought a few CD's from AllofMp3.com, which is a Russian company that lets you buy any song, which they encode on-the-fly to any format you want. You pay them one US cent per MB. So, your 4MB MP3 costs you *four cents*, with no DRM attached. A CD, encoded in 320kbps AAC, might cost 60 cents. Theoretically, this is legal, because they're licensed by the Russian equivalent of the RIAA. In case you're wondering, no, I haven't seen any fraudulent CC charges.

I found the I-tunes a little annoying, since I wasn't planning on using their store, I just wanted to load up my music library. So far allofmp3.com has been great. And ephpod works just like you expect it to, smooth.

Just go here and download songs for mere pennies. No limited time BS. No DRM.

Wahoo! I can now spend more money on music that the artists won't see and support the RIAA! Thanks!
allofmp3.com

to get all that cool stuff you want:
allofmp3.com

As long as you are getting MP3 music from russia, get it from AllofMp3. They will even give it to you in MPC/OGG if you want.

allofmp3.com

Which online music store sells tunes that have no DRM or use FairPlay besides iTunes?

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc).

I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10.

I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Can you see any legal problems with using this site? If so what are they? This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, and seems to be legit as far as my understanding goes, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music!

And yes I know... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc).

I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10.

I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Can you see any legal problems with using this site? If so what are they? This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, and seems to be legit as far as my understanding goes, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music!

And yes I know... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc).

I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10.

I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Can you see any legal problems with using this site? If so what are they? This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, and seems to be legit as far as my understanding goes, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music!

And yes I know... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

And the legal right to sell, too?

These guys. Remember them, faithful Slashdot readers?

Time to jump on this and clean up, comrades.

I've been using allofmp3.com for a while now, Pixies page here, and when a band comes through town, I'll always buy a shirt and usually the CD as well, just to make sure they get my support.

However, I do hope to always have the opportunity to check out new albums before buying them, I usually buy more music that way.

I posted this as an Ask Slashdot but it was rejected. Just thought I'd throw it out for anyone looking for good digital music dirt cheap. This seemed an appropriate place.

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc). I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10. I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Are there any legal issues I could run into using this site? If so what are they?

This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music! And yes I know ... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

I posted this as an Ask Slashdot but it was rejected. Just thought I'd throw it out for anyone looking for good digital music dirt cheap. This seemed an appropriate place.

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc). I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10. I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Are there any legal issues I could run into using this site? If so what are they?

This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music! And yes I know ... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

I posted this as an Ask Slashdot but it was rejected. Just thought I'd throw it out for anyone looking for good digital music dirt cheap. This seemed an appropriate place.

I recently discovered AllOfMP3, a Russian music store, because I was trying to find music by Eva Cassidy online and neither iTunes or Napster carry her music.

This site offers pay by bandwidth download of digital music, $10(US) per 1GB, and even allows you to select the bitrate and format of your download (including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, etc). I was a bit wary at first, and I carefully reviewed the legal info provided on the site. I was reassured by the fact that they accept PayPal and are PayPal verified among other payment methods, I decided to risk $10. I have been greatly pleased with the results.

My questions for the Slashdot community are: Are there any legal issues I could run into using this site? If so what are they?

This is by far the best deal I've seen in digital music, so I keep looking for the catch. If there isn't one, well enjoy the music! And yes I know ... in Soviet Russia digital music plays you.

'Schultz and MacKinnon came to believe that the core Starbucks customer, an affluent 25- to 50-year-old who's likelier to be tuned in to NPR than to MTV or one of the nine gazillion radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., probably feels ignored by the music industry.'

I tend to agree with them. This affluent 25- to 50-year-old (32, actually), pretty much only listens to NPR, but they're missing one important fact in their equation...

They're assuming I either already, or probably will, visit StarBucks.

(I've only been to Starbucks twice in my life, and the second time was to give them a 2nd chance. Needless to say: their coffee sucks, costs way too much, and I can brew a better tasting pot for myself right at home.)

Yes, I'm ignored by the Music Industry, but I've found the iTunes Music Store, and AllOfMP3 to be viable, and more preferable, alternatives.

$0.99? Good bargain?

Let's see:

emusic pricing averaging $0.22 per track(with premium subscription) for mostly high quality VBR mp3s(no DRM and platform restrictions).

allofmp3 pricing of about $.01 per megabyte downloaded(most albums will cost less than $0.99 unless you encode at very high rate) with your choice of compression formats and quality levels(again, no DRM or platform restrictions).

FYI, allofmp3 (and others) offer tracks much cheaper and in higher quality than itms. Quality at allofmp3 (due to great backend) varies from 24k mp3 -> .ogg -> .flac -> .wav. One pays by the bits dl'd, not by the track.

He has no understanding of the expensive nightmare that housing and providing CD-sized tracks over the Internet presents.

Archive.org does it for free. Magnatune allows you to download flacs for $5 an album. Allofmp3.com charges $5 for 500 MB, be it FLAC, Vorbis or whatever. Apple is just being cheap.

$.99 per song at 128 kbps?! allofmp3.com offers much sweeter deal plus the choice of encoders (MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media, etc) and bit rate.