Mark Forrester

Incredibly cheap MP3s

All of MP3I recently heard of a Russian MP3 download site, www.allofmp3.com, that sells mp3s dirt cheap, and apparently it is all completely legal. When I say cheap I mean $1.49 cheap, for an entire CD, thats like 10 rand a pop.

The question I have for you all is this:

Has anyone bought any MP3s from AllofMP3.com?

If you have, and your savings are still in your bank account, let me know, and I’ll be a registered user in a flash.

It does say this on the site, but I still can’t quite believe the price:

“The availability over the Internet of the ALLOFMP3.com materials is authorized by the license # LS-3М-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. “

R10 a CD!

In

,

20 responses

  1. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Totally cool, we use it all the time!

    Reply
  2. Gary Avatar
    Gary

    Illegal!!!

    Check the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5051826.stm

    Reply
  3. JBagley Avatar
    JBagley

    I tried to buy a CD, and this is what I got:

    Ordering is temporarily disabled

    We are sorry, but the ordering is currently disabled.

    The site is undergoing scheduled maintenance. Please check back later.

    Dang!

    Reply
  4. JBagley Avatar
    JBagley

    After reading the BBC link that Gary commented on, I came across this:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4328269.stm

    Seems that Russia copyright law doesn’t cover digital media. Only physical media such as CD’s, DVD’s etc. So AllofMP3.com seems that it will be there to stay! Whether buying illegal MP3’s is your cup of tea, well that’s your decision. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Bryce Avatar
    Bryce

    Mark it works very well, I have been using it for a while now. I have not been defrauded yet. However it is totally illegal as I have just found out today. See BBC techincal page, they have an article relating to the reasons. Yes they are exploiting a loophole in Russian copyright law. The UK authorities are threatening to take legal action against them. Seems that it’s users wont be investigated if it does all go to court, as it appears and works like a legitimate site. I’m afraid to say that I’m going to pack up my account and remove myself from the system, don’t fancy a knock on the door from the UK authoritys.

    Reply
  6. Manfred Avatar
    Manfred

    Hi Mark – I’d suggest you try the iTunes ripoff http://www.alltunes.com which is linked to the allofmp3 backend. You’ll need to download the frontend. Browsing and searching is a pleasure and the overall download speeds are really decent. I was initially sceptical, but decided to give it a go. Payments are handled through the Netherlands-based Chronopay, so there is no direct Russian involvement. You buy credits in USD 10 increments and use that when purchasing your selection. There is always new content and you’ll find plenty of back-catalog stuff. Overall everything works well and your credit card is as safe as anywhere else on or off the Net.

    In the past few weeks, there have been a number of outages. AllOfMP3 is currently the target of the World Trade Organization. The US has gone so far as to say that Russia will not be given entry to the WTO unless AllOfMP3 shuts down. I’m convinced it’s not legal, but it’s available…

    If you like, you can check out my post at http://hertenberger.co.za/?p=256

    Reply
  7. Mark Forrester Avatar
    Mark Forrester

    Thanks for the insight guys. It was too good to be true. Got to give it to those Russians though. That’s quite a loophole to find.

    Reply
  8. Domenico Nusca Avatar
    Domenico Nusca

    Absolutely no money goes to the artists. I also think that the Russian copyright law might be changing in September…

    Reply
  9. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Here is more ammo,

    http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1212

    Dodgy Russians, first the cold war then this! Viva iTunes…

    Reply
  10. Ridge Avatar
    Ridge

    I was reading a Belgian magazine when I was in Belgium. And intrestingly enough they were talking about All of MP3, and how it is almost certainly connected with the Russian mafia. So by using it you are possibly filling the pockets of high level criminals.

    Reply
  11. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    The music I buy isn’t available on mp3 anyway =)

    Reply
  12. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Sadly both AllofMP3 and AllTunes are illegal. The licence they claim has apparently not been granted by any of the music publishers. On the other hand, emusic.com is a cool site although it tends to feature older stuff and indie music.

    Reply
  13. gmk Avatar
    gmk

    Regardless of legality, Allofmp3 has shown that quite clearly there is a huge market for delivery of cheap music digitally. I have had an account there for a while now and use it eat up my cap at the end of every month.

    So instead of trying to shut them down why not look at their model and see what they doing right !

    Exploiting a loophole…..nah the law makers create – we use !

    Reply
  14. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    GMK, it’s very easy to plead ignorance. Try to sell services/products that are duplicable yourself for a while, and then speak again.

    Whenever a value chain gets broken, someone who deserves value loses out, and whoever broke it deserves to get blik$emed!

    Reply
  15. Marco Valente Avatar
    Marco Valente

    I thought it would’ve been illegal. i’ve learned a long time ago to realise these “wow” services are not always what they seem!

    Reply
  16. gmk Avatar
    gmk

    Martin….i worked with a bunch of SA bands when the music scene was experiencing supposed support for bands and putting CDS out……

    The best deal on the table was 12% of each CD sold after they had recouped expences from producing and manufacturing the CD….essentially the band got round 14 bucks per cd sold at R120-00 the rest went to distribution and the record company who did fsck all but give us access to distribution channels

    Not much of a deal !

    Further more the success of allofmp3 should be a pretty clear indication to the music industry that this is how we the buyers [ the real driving force in the market ] want to get our music at a decent price……

    The only people who really stands to lose are the distributors and the record companies ….in the long run Muso’s will make a lot more if they start dealing directly with these new channels of distribution….

    Ask the artic monkeys…..

    Reply
  17. David Avatar
    David

    Hi Mark,
    pity about these websites. I do know another website like that, I don’t know how legal it is though http://www.delit.net
    I am really keen on buying legal mp3s, would you know where else I could buy on the net, other than iTunes?
    Cheers
    David

    Reply
  18. Matt MacNeil Avatar
    Matt MacNeil

    Ok First Off, Legal Music Stores such as the Itunes Music Store, don’t pay artists either. When you purchase CD’s, it doesn’t go to the artist. It goes to the multi-billion dollar Record Companies. Even if it was, does it really matter, Look at famous artist (by Famous I mean famous enough to be on Alltunes, Itunes and such.) They have plenty of money, more than enough. So Don’t say we’re killing the artists with these sites, We’re giving money to the Greedy Music Corporation.

    Reply
  19. Johnny U Avatar
    Johnny U

    I thought ALLTUNES was cool too until i got ripped off in Aug 06 by either Alltunes or CHRONOPAY when my credit card started to get charges in RUSSIA and america that i never made !!!

    Reply
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