AllOfMP3 Launches allTunes

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1. Jason L. Baptiste
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 8:44 pm

   If someone from AllofMP3 is reading this, please listen. Make allofmp3 have an open API. Let the users sell the songs for you as well, and share some revenue with them. Let the AC/DC fan sell his favorite AC/DC songs on his blog, let the Creed tribute site sell Creed music to its visitors,etc. I know I would use this with uGather down the road. All in all, AllofMP3 is an awesome service. They too have had my business for a short while now. I used to pay itunes one dollar a song. (iTunes is still getting my 2 dollars per video… multiple times a day). Allofvideo next please? Great review Nik

   -Jason L. Baptiste

2. Michael Arrington
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 8:50 pm

   Most of my music library is from AllofMp3. Love it.

   They really need to build a Mac version of the player.

3. Jason L. Baptiste
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 8:56 pm

   Good point Mike. ahh, a Mac client would be great. The downloading process on the website has too much friction for my liking. I’m sure it’ll be here soon.

   -Jason L. Baptiste

4. Joe
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:06 pm

   I agree that record labels need to rethink their pricing strategies, and I think iTunes is helping them move in that direction. Maybe I’m wrong, but my only concern with AllofMP3 and this new allTunes is that it just doesn’t seem likely that any of the money reaches back to the artist… especially being a russian based operation.

   Basically, it boils down to this. I want to buy albums from artists I like. But more importantly, I want to be able to support those artists and help them crank out more good stuff with my purchases. Both iTunes and AllofMP3 do the former, but I think only iTunes does the latter.

5. Michael Arrington
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:10 pm

   Joe, that’s right, not one single cent makes it back to the labels or artists.

   AllofMP3 is a catalyst that is going to increase the rate of change in the music industry. Content must be free in the long run, after the initial launch. Artists can make money selling merchandise and with live music. Labels are going to be gone, or significanlty different.

6. Mike
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:13 pm

   You’d have to be insane to download and run an application designed in Russia and with quasi-legal grounds as you state - god only knows what kind of hidden spyware, phishing, virus or other devious code in running behind the scenes without your knowledge! Why not just use morpheus or kazaa and get it 100% but illegal, instead of getting it illegally but sitll paying for it at the same time?

7. Zoli Erdos
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:16 pm

   Nick, have you used the Allofmp3 Explorer before? It was basically a IE-like browser, specifically for the site, with very similar features, incl. catalogue, preview (actually, pre-listen…), dload management, account management ..etc.

   It sounds to me that allTunes is the Web 2.0-ized version: round corners, spring colors instead of dark blue/grey, plus a sexier name :-))

8. Nik Cubrilovic
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

   Mike I ran RegMon and FileMon while installing it just for that reason - all clean. Suprisingly a very tidy application. Not all things that come out of Russia are bad-ass

9. Michael Arrington
   

   March 29th, 2006 at 9:17 pm

   yeah, kazaa sure is stable…no spyware to see here, move along. I’ve been using allofmp3 for a long, long time and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with it.

   To be even more clear: I’ve used it to get online copies of my own cds - it is actually much easier and quicker to download it from AllofMP3 than it is to rip a cd.

10. Nik Cubrilovic
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:18 pm

    Yes I did Zoli - but now it is, as you say, sexier and easier to use I think it’s a great improvement

11. Chris
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:23 pm

    I’d be very interested to know if people are using credit cards or XROST. I’ve never heard of XROST and I am a bit timid to use a credit card. Any advice?

12. Michael Arrington
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:41 pm

    I’ve used a credit card many times with no issues.

13. Oliver Zheng
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

    Chris, I’m using XROST for all my payments to AllOfMP3. It is basically a middleman between Paypal and AllofMP3. I don’t know why this is necessary, but there is no harm I see that could result from this, since none of your private information is given to either parties. Besides, you are getting a discount for using XROST as well. I think XROST is a pretty reliable and amazing service.

14. Peter Oliver
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    I can attest to what Oliver is saying above. I’ve spent a few hundred bucks through XROST for AllOfMP3 and never had a problem. Plus it gives you a 10% percent bonus on whatever amount you add to your account in AllOfMp3 from XROST. (I think that’s right anyways…)

15. Andrew
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:56 pm

    Two things startle me about this.

    1. “quasi-legal”. AllOfMp3 is based outside of the US and, against the vast majority of labels’ and artists’ wishes, is distributing their music without their consent - and charging for it! As another poster said you’d be better just ripping it off Kazaa.

    2. “content must be free in the long run”… Well, I’d sure also like my shopping to be free and also my electricity. But guess what? It has to be paid for. And in the meantime I don’t just go shoplifting or illegally hooking into the grid.

16. Sid
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 9:58 pm

    If you don’t want to risk using a credit card, use XROST, which can take money from Paypal. Remember, Paypal doesn’t hold you responsible for fraud or unauthorized tranactions so you should be safe.

    From what I have read about Allofmp3 and XROST, they don’t abuse payment information.

17. Artem
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

    Hey Nik. Your reference to image search for Sharapova reminds me of an old russian joke. So, a group of Japanese businessmen visits russian plants to see if there are any possibilitites for joint ventures. At the end of their visit Russians ask them if they liked anything in Russia.
    “You’ve got beautiful kids” replies polite Japanese businessman.
    “Well, yeah. But what about our plants, power stations, cars, planes, machinery?”.
    “Like I said, you’ve got beautiful kids. Anything you do with your hands is worthless.”

    Friendly warning: self-deprecating jokes is a staple of Russian humour, but if you are not Russian, do not ever try to tell that joke to a Russian, that would be an insult. Just because there are great things that Russians create with their hands.

18. Nik Cubrilovic
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:02 pm

    Mike I have also used your credit card many times with no issue

19. Michael Arrington
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:04 pm

    heh

20. Sid
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:04 pm

    I just read this article from News.com on allofmp3’s legality in Russia.

    http://news.com.com/MP3s+for+p.....g=nefd.top

    The article is over a year old and Allofmp3s is still up. I am guessing the police decided not to take action?

21. Nik Cubrilovic
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:07 pm

    Sid - thats just a government shake-down, happens throughout all of East Europe as soon as a business starts making money

22. Zoli Erdos
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:19 pm

    Re. credit-card use online, not just for this site, but in general: if your bank does not offer “virtual cc numbers” i.e. online generated, use-once, throw-away numbers yet, then it’s time to switch banks.

23. Bob
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 10:24 pm

    I have used the site for years now with no credit card problems. All payments go thruogh an international bank clearing house and the only information allofmp3 sees is the credit to the user account. Probably as safe as buying anything online.

    Spyware! Let me tell you about windoze reinstall(s) after using Kazaa. I now run their explorer under Linux (Debian) with CrossOverOffice (Wine) and so computer security for me is simply not a concern.

    I love the international music that you simply can’t get in the US at any price. I am currently buying my 2nd album by Varvara, a female Russian pop/folk singer.

24. Jack
    

    March 29th, 2006 at 11:51 pm

    Jason - We’re about to launch something called ‘Channels’ on our swapzies.com website. This will allow the ‘fan’ to monetarise any digital content they want, with a link directly from their blog to the location where the file is hosted.

    This ‘monetarisation’ can be done in two ways, either users pay for access to content for a certain period, or they pay on a ‘per file’ basis. We collect this money, and forward it to you. Users can pay via PayPal.

    Michael (and Jason) - Re. the Channels as mentioned above, our first ‘commercial’ channel for swapzies is a music website. This site links, via swapzies, to various file hosting locations, initially to a Russian affiliate.

    The big plan is to overcome the ethical issues of AllofMP3 and the like.

    In most cases, certainly upon launch, it will be linking to our affiliate site, for the cheap, legal downloads. There is a standing offer to artists though that we will link to their own file if they supply it, rather than the Russian version. This can be monetarised as explained above.

    The goal we share with you Mike, is that music needs to be priced for an era of word of mouth marketing and digital downloads - not expensive commercial promotion and CD distribution.

    No-one will begrudge paying 10c for a track, but they do begrudge a dollar as it’s too high. Once prices fall, illegal file sharing will be cracked as the incentive to break the law will be gone. The consumer wins, and the artist wins.

    More info on this channel can be found at http://www.stridr.com.

25. Chris Sidi
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 12:37 am

    I hope that instead of being shut down it forces the record labels to re-think their pricing strategies.

    Nik,

    Could you expand on this? Do you think 99 cents a song is unreasonable? (I’m guessing you’re referring to the current system arranged by Apple moreso than the labels’ attempts to get $1.50+ or tiered pricing.)

    Do you just want them to charge less, or do you want them to change how they make thier money? Is it about right and wrong, or the future being interesting?

    (I see Michael’s response about content being free but I won’t assume he speaks for you as well.)

26. Colin
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 1:17 am

    I have two observations; firstly, will all you xenophobes get a life? Why just because it’s Russian does it have to be illegal, full of spyware, full of viruses and why “they” are out to steal your credit details and steal music from artists? Even when lots of users have stated the software is clean and credit cards have been used successfully for months/years, I bet you still don’t believe it.

    Secondly,”Do you think 99 cents a song is unreasonable?” Frankly I do. That 99 cents is simply someone’s guess at the highest price that could be charged, while locking buyers into proprietory player formats and aiming also to wipe out Kazaa and other P2P networks.

    AllofMP3 simply guessed that 20 Cents was more realistic, and they are correct. I buy music from them, but I see no reason to share that music with anyone else. I also buy more songs from more artists - I’ve spent zero on Itunes but I do regularly topup my AllofMp3 account.

    I believe that’s called “market forces”, and was the justification for years of charging me £14 for CDs in the UK that Europeans could buy for £10 and Americans for £8. I believe that the playing field is now level and that music appreciation, if not the “Music Industry”, will be better for it.

27. Paul D
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 1:29 am

    I just wanted to put in a good word for Allofmp3.com. With their pricing model, I spend more on music per year than I have in my entire life buying CDs. The price is right, the selection is very good, and being able to choose your encoding method is unbeatable.

    I guess I’m waiting for the Mac version of allTunes now.

28. Ralph
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 1:53 am

    I also get my music from AllofMP3 for quite some time now and never had any problems with them.

    What they do right, is to offer their cutomers choice. The customer can choose, what quality he wants (lossy to lossless) and pay for what he chooses.

    I don’t see a point in spending a lot on high quality audio components like speakers, headphones, receiver, sound boards, etc. to listen to crappy lossy tunes. Yes, with good equipment you can hear the difference!

    Here in Germany / Austria you can offer copies of games, nazi-stuff, etc in eBay, but you’re not allowed to link to AllofMP3 - crazy world, isn’t it?

29. Andrew
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 2:30 am

    I’m still amazed by these comments. Of course they can offer amazing value………. They don’t pay any royalties. They’re just serving up 0’s and 1’s that someone else has put in a lot of effort to create.

30. Bart Claeys
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 2:52 am

    I got this little article in my inbox from the Anne Clark newsletter:

    “The news is spreading fast on the net and we thought this would interest many of you. Today’s headline on Side-Line magazine is a story on how musicfans from all over the world have been the victim of fraudulous use of their credit cards after having entered their credit card to buy illegal download albums for just one dollar, the so-called ‘MP31dollardeals’. These sites, mostly based in Russia, are active under over 40 domainnames (including the popular MP3sugar, Audio Store, …) and have now started picking victims amongst their clients (believed to be several millions) at random to use their cards for other means. The worst thing: it appears to be that several credit card companies have refused refunding the frauded cards after it was revealed that the credit card users had been buying illegal MP3’s online from these companies.”

    Is this a scam?

31. matthew
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 2:53 am

    I wont use allofmp3, seems like a very dubious business model to me.

    youre just paying for their bandwidth, they dont pay royalties.

32. Chris Sidi
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 2:57 am

    Oh and also:

    “… the conventional economic approach to developing-world piracy … is to lower the cost of a product closer to the pirate version, closing the pricing gap to try to win customers over to the official version. In practice, however, the pirate price is so low that it’s rarely possible to close that gap enough to make much of a difference.”
    - the long tail blog

    It’s probably a losing battle for a legal music service to compete on price with AllOfMP3. Better to differentiate themselves with marketing or well-knownness. Make themselves Coke and let AllOfMP3 be generic cola somehow. Use subscription services to try to snag some of the people who consume lots of music when its cheap, without hurting your sales to people who buy six CDs/50 songs a year, period.

    (I figure 99 cents was seen as the high end of the impulse buy point for most people. If you heard a single song somewhere and want to hear it again, what’s 99 cents? A lot of people won’t think twice or dick with trying to get it free, if they’re thinking about it one song at a time. And it was enough of an improvement on the alternative of a whole CD for $15 that you still had to rip.)

33. vt
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 3:24 am

    I also get my music from AllofMP3 for quite some time now and never had any problems with them. Indeed XROST allows to use paypal and hide all personal information (even email!).

    However for some reason I am not able to listen to the full song in low quality anymore, even with money on my account. Did they change anything?

34. Streve
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 3:30 am

    yes then find out your then restricted with what you can do or play that 99cents song on

    then have to go through the hassle
    to jump though hoops to activate
    different machines to play the stupid 1 DRM file from itunes.

    and ON TOP OF THIS pay 99cents
    to be restricted haha

    or go to allofmp3 get your music
    really cheap legal and the best bit
    oh yes the best bit.

    it plays on what device you choose
    not what devices they choose.

    it doesnt have restrictions you can
    burn it to a cd/dvd you can convert it.

    basically you can do with it what u wish
    without jumping through hoop’s
    tryin to remove the dRM from the
    thing YOU paid for.

    yes i can see many reasons to pay
    itunes for songs that are incompatable with every other device out there.

35. Ted
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 4:50 am

    The main issues for me are DRM, Price, and Convenience.

    Itunes is the most convenient to use of the ‘mainstream’ services, but the pricing is horrendous and the DRM is awful.

    AllOfMp3 gives the customer the ability to choose encoding rates and format, has no restrictive or annoying DRM, and is very convenient to use. They even have great customer service. And the pricing is much better.

    The interesting thing is that Allofmp3 is basically the only place which gets my money these days. I get a lot of free CDs as I am in the publishing business and publish a small music magazine and website, plus I get tons of music from friends, either trading using yousendit or even just passing around CDs or open DIRs of music.

    If it weren’t for Allofmp3, I would probably spend ZERO money on music. The labels really really need to think about this if they are going to survive.

36. Jean-Francois
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 5:42 am

    Related to the comments about the quality of music and downloading from Allofmp3 instead of ripping CDs as Michael does, I’d be very interested to know which encoding rate and format do you use?

37. Ruth
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 5:43 am

    There’s some information on the mobile version available here. Looks like it’s not fully working.

38. Alex Fedotov
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 6:51 am

    Dear Jason L. Baptiste,

    Can I contact you somehow (you are not on LinkedIn). The thing your are describing is EXACTLY what I’m working on right now. It will also include a pre-paid ‘Media card’ for seamless web-based payments (ready).

    Could you, please, contact me directly at president@On-lineCard.com ?

39. anoncritic
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 7:41 am

    Wow, I’m really surprised people are so easy on allofmp3 for engaging in unethical (most likely illegal) activity considering the uproar from the writers about jigsaw and plaxo.

    I love this site, but this is a bit much. Who pays the artist if content is free? And can’t people choose the fate of their own content?

40. Alex Fedotov
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 7:44 am

    As to the xenophobia and jokes - you, guys simply don’t know how creative small Russian and Chinese teams are and what “Sputnik” surprises (not one, many of them) are in the works. THAT will make a good joke soon. Very soon.

41. Mo
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 7:58 am

    I believe I read in comments here previously or on some other blog about this issue that allofmp3 had tried to give back a certain % of their profits to RIAA and they refused to accept because that would legitimize allofmp3. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.

42. rick gregory
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 8:40 am

    So, basically, those of you who buy from allofmp3.com and who were railing against the RIAA, saying that you really were concerned about the fact that the artists were being ripped off were… lying. Because allofmp3 doesn’t pay the artists…

    Face up to it - you’re stealing. Period. You didn’t care about the artists, that was just ethical cover for the fact that you just wanted free music.

    Of course, when you go to create your own IP you’re giving it away for free and not taking any of that filthy money stuff, right?

43. tpp
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 8:52 am

    Actually, allofmp3.com IS paying roayalties, just not as much as the (western) music industry lobbyists would like them to.

    They’re paying fees to the Russian equivalent of IFPI, from what I can remember.

    And a response to all of you, who think all Russian businesses are run by Russian mafia, there was a review of online download sites a year or so ago. allofmp3.com was included. They specifically tested the security of credit card purchases. They didn’t find one problem with any of the sites included in the review.

    Furthermore, allofmp3.com is very popular. You would think credit card fraud associated with allofmp3.com purchases would become quite a public event. It’d be all over the Internet news sites in no time.

44. jlw
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 9:28 am

    @tpp
    Kazaa is still around too, and is still pretty popular. However, the popularity does not legitimize it. The business model is still piracy.

    That is according to this article at slate.com.
    http://www.slate.com/id/2115868/
    By Dana Mulhauser
    Posted Monday, March 28, 2005, at 3:35 PM ET
    Dana Mulhauser is a law student and a writer living in Cambridge, Mass

    All legal and fair competitive pressure should be applied to artists/music/content production companies. This includes finding alternatives to the artists they represent; however, people seem to enjoy big market artists and also the smaller market artists they often subsidize.

    It’s hilarious given Prince’s history he is actually on allofmp3’s “cover.”
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10467211/from/RL.2/
    For his comments on his latest record deal.

    However, if you allow companies who are engaging in questionable activity to compete you end up with various market inefficiencies (telecom for instance). The result is stifling the real competitors that come up with legal solutions to the existing system.

    Not to mention you are encouraging illegal/unethical behavior in other content areas by virtue of ignoring the law and rewarding the behavior.

    @Mike Arrlington
    You did not seem too happy with somebody else violating your work/research/copyrighted written material.

    I doubt anybody would argue about someone’s use of your blog postings to make a book for resale without your consent.

    What “content” qualifies for the “content should be free” doctrine?
    Why is fairly blatant abuse OK in this instance?
    What other forms of IP are next because it is inconvenient to pay for them?

45. Nick B.
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 10:00 am

    Thanks for supporting Russian mafia!

46. jlw
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 10:00 am

    Did my post just get deleted by a bug?

47. miscreant
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 10:08 am

    As an artist who has had music up on AllofMP3 since the start, I can confirm that they haven’t paid me a single cent.

    My lawyers have been in contact with them, as have attorneys for many other musicians I know, and their attitude is basically, “fuck you, we’re in Russia, try and do something about it.”

    Don’t delude yourself–if you’re buying from AllofMP3, none of that money is going to the people who put hard work into creating the music. It’s lining some Russian dude’s pockets.

    I’d rather you download my music for free from a P2P network than make a scammer rich.

48. Hank R.
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    This has nothing to do with mobsters. If you have any doubs read the info at http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

    If I am not mistaken, Allofmp3 has to close down in september, when new legislation will come in to effect.
    A least that’s waht I gather from this interview: http://www.museekster.com/mp3searchinterview.htm

49. Kingsley
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 10:57 am

    I am interested in AllOfMP3 for a simple reason - they are proving that conventional pricing models don’t work in an international, web-based market with no transfer costs. 99 cents is affordable in the US, but is that the price an Indian consumer would pay? If you do lower the price for the Indian consumer, would it be fair to maintain higher pricing elsewhere?

    I believe that content prices will (not necessarily “should”)eventually fall to the lowest common denominator. We might soon see moves to engage the developing world where production and marketing costs are lower. Music is merely another US centric industry that’s crying out for international competition.

50. Michael Arrington
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 11:25 am

    #40 - 192, mp3. That’s good enough for me and it keeps the file sizes reasonable.

    To the comments about iTunes being good enough at $.99 - The issue isn’t the price, its the damnable DRM.

51. Sam Kahler
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 11:27 am

    Let me get this straight - most of you guys have no problem with this but you find that other company Jigsaw “evil”. If Jigsaw relocated to Russia would they be OK? You are ethically fine stealing music but getting a phone call or email at work is over the ethical line? Perhaps you should all look in the mirror here.

    Mr. Arrington, where do you draw your ethical line? Nice try saying you have only bought music that you own CD’s for. Isn’t allofmp3 breaking the US law and harming artists that are entitled to be paid for their work? Isn’t this a double standard?

    What is worse, being illegal or being evil?

52. Samurai Show
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 11:28 am

    I have been using the site for a while also. No problems. Bottom line is that they have the best technology, prices, and quality. If your scared because it’s Russian, stop watching 80’s Schwarzenegger movies.

53. Alex Fedotov
    

    March 30th, 2006 at 12:57 pm

    I’m strictly against any illegal activities, including distribution of IP of any kind, be it software, music, video or whatever. Despite being of Russian origin I even consider that AllofMP3 (and other two services of the same type - delit.ru and MP3search.ru) indeed had crossed the line long ago and are doi