Allofmp3 Shut Down, Again

studguy1 writes to tell us TorrentFreak is reporting that the Russian government has shut down Allofmp3, the popular online music site. "AllOfMP3 has been a thorn in the side of the RIAA and the US government for years. Last year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that if Russia wants to join the WTO, they should shut down the pirate music website that is robbing US recording companies of sales."

No Big Deal

[sam_paris]

In actuality, most people stopped using Allofmp3 when it became virtually impossible to pay, some months ago. (when Visa pulled the plug)

The rather more substantial thorn in the record industrys side is now iTunes and Apple.

Re:Bribery?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Isn't that bribery?

More like extortion.

Re:No Big Deal

[Anonymous Coward]

That's probably why allofmp3.com is now mp3Sparks.com [slashdot.org], including the same logins/passwords and the same typos in the track names and album titles.

Re:robbing == theft

[YouTookMyStapler]

"AllOfMP3 has been a thorn in the side of the RIAA and the US government for years. Last year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that if Russia wants to join the WTO, they should shut down the pirate music website that is robbing US recording companies of sales."

The RIAA is robbing itself of legitimate music sales because the recording companies can't be bothered to put music out that is actually worth paying for. Now they have taken to bullying countries for admission into the WTO.

When I was younger, I almost always bought the newest albums, because the music was good, or at least I thought so. Nowadays I still buy music, a majority from indy labels. I buy CDs, I don't like the idea of buying music online that can't be burned onto a CD as a back-up due to DRM controls. I guess I am just more particular of what I buy these days, mostly because I don't want to pay $15 for an album that is crap (which describes most, but not all, of new music today).

Re:And once they stop "robbing" RIAA, sales go up?

[TheRaven64]

The thing about AllOfMP3 was that it showed the marginal cost of running an online store. Even if we assume that AllOfMP3 was not paying anything to the recording industry, and not making any profit, they must still have been covering their bandwidth costs. Now, add on to that roughly what the RIAA pays artists, and you get something like 10-20/track as the minimum cost of running a fair music store. Then they can look at iTunes selling tracks for $1.29 (without DRM), and suddenly realise that $1 of every track they buy is going to middle men who aren't providing any service of value to them.

There isn't much a customer can do about this, but there is a lot an artist can do when they do the same sums. This is why the RIAA members want AllOfMP3 shut down. It shows exactly how much profit they are raking in from online sales to exactly the people they don't want to know; the ones they claim to represent.

AllofMP3.com works fine for me

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as I use the AllTunes Explorer. Still getting daily music updates too.

And you can still refill your balance with Visa or Mastercard. Just click the links and follow the directions and use a $0 liability card.

Re:Countdown until AoMP3 reappears in China/Brasil

[Cyberax]

Just tried to pay using my Visa. It works.

Re:No Big Deal

[Harik]

except despite having spent hundreds of dollars at allofmp3, they never did transfer my account (or balance) to the new site. And they don't take any form of payment, either. They should get into linden dollars or e-gold or something goofy and obviously money-laundering like that.

I mean, hell, how the fuck do offshore casinos move cash around?

 

Re:Countdown until AoMP3 reappears in China/Brasil

[adona1]

Especially as seeing as the RIAA wasn't collecting the royalties that Allofmp3.com claimed to be setting aside, the artists weren't getting paid anyway

You may as well just download the various format torrents from TPB....the artist will get the same as they were anyway, your CC will be safe and you won't have to maintain the pretence that paying tuppence to a pseudo-legal site was legitimately buying the music ;)

Re:i hate the riaa, you hate the riaa

[Anonymous Coward]

You are correct that no US-based artists received money from AllOfMP3.com. When they tried to pay, the RIAA wouldn't -let them-.

Yeah, it probably wasn't the whole amount, etc etc. But considering that they aren't IN the US, and they were following their local laws, I can't see a problem.

If you issue is 'immoral', you should look closer to home first. Business here routinely do immoral things, including the RIAA. Worry about what people in your own country are doing before other countries.

Re:And once they stop "robbing" RIAA, sales go up?

[shark72]

"allofmp3 WAS legitimate in Russia. It paid royalties to ROMS, the Russian organization responsible for collecting copyright fees. The RIAA simply didn't like ROMS' rates and structures (even though Russia, as a sovereign nation, has every right to set its own royalties), and declared allofmp3 illegal."

Well, for what it's worth, ROMS isn't recognized by any of the world's performance licensing groups. Whether that's a badge of honor or a shame is, as the math texts state, an exercise left to the reader.

Contrary to popular belief, the cost of sale of a music download usually isn't zero. There are mechanical royalties to the composer and lyricist to deal with (the mechanical rate is set by law), and there are usually contractual royalties as well, paid to the performer. Record companies have tricks for minimizing these royalties, but it's a safe assumption that for a typical track sold on iTunes, mechanical and contractual royalties are being accrued.

Now, let's say you're a record company. For the sake of simplicity let's say you're one of the cool indie labels, and you pay your artists fairly. One track you sell has a mechanical of $0.08 each to the composer and lyricist, and you're throwing the rest of the band an additional $0.04, for a total of $0.20 that you owe to the artists for each track sold.

So this ROMS outfit tells you that you can have a portion of the licensing fee that they've collected, if you really want it. The web site sold your track for $0.20, for which they paid ROMS $0.02. ROMS takes their cut, so that penny is ready for you to take whenever you want it.

Trouble is, if you take that penny, you still owe the band $0.20. If you take it and don't pay them their $0.20 (for a net loss of $0.19 to you), the best case is that they'll be mightily (and rightfully) pissed. The worst case is that they'll find themselves a lawyer.

So, you eat the difference. ROMS says that they've collected royalties for 10,000 downloads and they owe you $100. You take the $100 and pay your band the $2,000 they're owed. You're out $1,900.

And then ROMS tells you that they have another $100 for you. And another. And another.

My story is hypothetical; mainly for the very big reason that artist who've tried to get sales info from allofmp3.com have failed in their quest. Yes, I am aware that AllofMP3 stated that they supported artists' rights, but they could have at least shared this basic sales data, just as iTunes and legitimate stores do. And, if you try surfing the ROMS site for information on how to collect royalties, it quickly becomes frustrating, even if you speak Russian. Compare this with the two US performance right societies, ASCAP and BMI -- they go out of their way to make it easy for artists to find out how much they are owed. I know that lots of people reading this see ROMS and allofmp3 as the good guys in this situation, but it's just not showing from their actions.

Re:Countdown until AoMP3 reappears in China/Brasil

[uolamer]

The WTO seems to be the main reason countries bother stopping piracy, when they are extorted enough to do it. But China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc is still on their members list. I dont even know what the WTO does, I dont care, I just wish they would cease to exist.

Re:Thorn in the Side?

[Anonymous Coward]

An MP3 bootlegger is certainly a "thorn in the side" of the RIAA. But of the U.S. government? Somehow, in this era of major terrorism, genocide, nuclear proliferation, insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other thorny issues, I don't think anybody in the government loses sleep over allofmp3.

No, it's increasingly becoming a problem as the USA switches from actually making stuff to copy protectionism of imaginary property. Suddenly any foreign country can take a huge chunk out of the USA economy simply by not respecting copyrights. What's worse is that countries that actually make stuff and aren't reliant upon copy protectionism can do this without negatively affecting their own economies. This means that the USA has to bully other countries into joining the imaginary property club in order to support the business models it's encouraged its media companies to take up.

Re:Soo...

[Skreems]

When US record companies see no positive impact in sales, will Russia be allowed to let allofmp3 reopen?

Because, for some reason I find myself really doubting that people that were paying pennies for songs are going to suddenly turn around and start paying an order of magnitude more.

Actually, I bought at least 10 albums in the last year that I wouldn't have if I hadn't downloaded the whole thing on allofmp3 first. As well as several shows that I've gone to, enjoyed, bought a t-shirt at, etc...

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps, but unlike P2P services, AllofMP3 music is purchased. People who purchase DRM-free music online are less likely to purchase its CD equivalent than if they had gotten it for free, mainly because the purchase of a track implies ownership of the track as opposed to something received over P2P which is less likely to create such a feeling. Yes, it also creates exposure in the same way as P2P services do, but this logic could also be applied to the existing CD market as well as iTunes and similar DRM'd services. Most people aren't going to be outright fanatics about their favorite bands, going to their shows no matter how far way they are and buying every piece of merchandise they can get their hands on, because that would both be far too expensive and also cause them to be alienated and/or ostracized by friends and family (face it, having an obsession and/or excessively evangelizing your interests is downright unhealthy). Does this mean that the tour and merchandise market isn't a promising one? Of course not. But not everyone is going to participate in such a market, at least not constantly. I'd say that most people are content with keeping up with new releases and going to an occasional concert if one is reasonably close by.

The real shame in AllofMP3's shutdown is that the RIAA has once again shot themselves in the foot. Illicit as it may be, AllofMP3 was successful at wooing customers from P2P services without having to resort to traditional advertising or promises of legality like the iTunes Store and other digital stores have had to do. Just like Napster before it, it gained popularity purely over the Internet and by word of mouth, and just like Napster, the industry could have easily created a similar service with exactly the same benefits or made licensing deals with the current one. If the RIAA was truly not getting its compensation, it could have sat down with AllofMP3 and worked out a deal. Even if AllofMP3 wouldn't cooperate, the industry could have at least launched a similar service, one that provides high quality media with choice of compression format and bitrate, a reasonable low-cost payment system (from the customer's point of view) that's capable of competing with "free," and doesn't use any DRM. Instead, they chose to use the legal and political sledgehammer to smash their competition instead of imitating it.