# legal song downloads, 50 cents an album!!!



## blackecho (Oct 28, 2003)

i found a new music service that makes itunes cry... i figured i'd share it with you all.

this is the coolest crap in the world! a couple of days away i was looking at Wired magazine's Best of Tech 2004 special and it had a few reviews of online music services, iTunes, Walmart's and a new one that I've never heard of, it's called *** removed illegal site ID ***. It's based in Russia, which at first i thought was kind of shady, and offers audio downloads based on Megabytes and gigabytes instead of by-song. a full gigabyte only costs 10$, and at around 50mb per album, wow! so, i checked it out, made sure it's legal (it's also been reviewed by CNEt and was proven to be legal in all ways due to a couple of loopholes in russian and american copyright laws) and tried. you can download music right off of the site in multiple dmr-free formats including but not limited to mp3, wma, flac and ogg or you can install thier software which makes downloading so much easier.

check it out and post your impression's here... i think it comes with a free 10mb download.

*** Removed illegal link ***


----------



## FrostBite (Jun 24, 2004)

Thanks a million echo! This is awesome. I downloaded all day yesterday and only spent $5.


----------



## MightyQueenC (Jul 7, 2004)

For your interest.
http://www.museekster.com/mp3searchinterview.htm

I cut and pasted this from the help forum of this site (*not my opinion, but that of the member is in blue font)
Carolyn 

Interview With MP3Search
I found an interesting interview with the head of Mp3Search here.

A few points:

1) The price change on Mp3Search to 10c a song was done because copyright holders complained that they charged too little. I am skeptical about the logic of that - since Russian music services pay a flat 10% of their revenue for a blanket copyright license, allowing them to ignore individual copyright holders who generally won't negotiate with them anyway, I'm not certain how a copyright holder could influence Russian music service pricing, since they have no ability to withhold their music from them. Besides, it would seem more logical they would demand pricing at least comparable to what many western music services would charge.

I suspect the new pricing was more likely the result of a desire for increased revenue, not because of external pressures. They dare not exceed the rates charged by the biggest of the Russian services - allofmp3.

2) A new copyright payment system is due for implementation in Russia in January 2005. The rates will likely increase, but oddly the copyright groups still have not told companies what the new rate shall be. This also strikes me as very strange. One would think with about 35 days remaining before the new year, the new rates would have been released by now. Who knows how this will impact pricing for services in 2005.

3) In 2006, a major revision to Russian copyright law could spell significant trouble for all of the Russian music services as it would require copyright agencies to negotiate directly with copyright holders. This would mean ROMS and other copyright agencies would have to enter into agreements with labels like Sony, Arista, BMG, etc. Presumably these labels will continue to stonewall all efforts at establishing agreements with services like MP3Search, perhaps meaning the removal of all the music those labels offer. This one could be the death knell for these music services.

4) As I have suspected all along, MP3Search and its brethren often obtain music the same way many of us have - by downloading them off peer-2-peer networks, Suprnova, etc. If you ever wondered why certain tracks sounded awful, were mislabeled, or albums appeared incomplete, this would explain a lot of that. I suspect those doing the downloading have a strong affinity for the hard rock/metal music genre, which would also explain why those albums appear on these services out of proportion with all other music genres.

5) Paypal has evidently seized a lot of payments customers made destined for these services. MP3Search has honored those payments, despite never actually receiving the money. Paypal presumes these services are illegal, which is why they don't offer the service to MP3Search any longer.

My own ideas:

Considering the fact the only Russian music service being completely open and honest to its users about the source of its music has been RIN's MP3 music service, I personally believe they have the best model. They allow users to encode and upload their own album collections in return for credit (free access to the service for a week or two for a certain number of albums uploaded). Since most people don't upload, they happily pay for a monthly subscription. But for those who do, it's a win-win. The customer gets free downloads and the service gets a much wider range of uploaded music. Since the quality of the upload can dictate whether or not the customer gets the service credit, most take care to encode music and label it correctly.

Now you have a minimum of several dozen users with varying musical tastes contributing to the service. That means you get a wide range of Russian pop, jazz, classical, dance, rock, world, and even instrumental/new age music to choose from, not the tastes of a handful of individuals who persist in collecting and offering what they personally seem to like.

I think offering some sort of uploading provision for users in return for service credit could vastly improve the quality and variety of the music offered on MP3Search and its cousins.

RIN's service is completely underpublicized, which is why it doesn't yet offer the sheer quantity of music the others do, but borrowing some aspects of their formula could make MP3Search much more competitive with allofmp3, which offers a better variety of music.

Something to consider.


----------



## randomboy198 (Dec 8, 2004)

I like that idea of uploads for downloads, thats genius! i have tons of CDs and everything i rip is 192k or better MP3. just to be clear its allofmp3.com that offers this, correct?


----------



## loopy in ky (Feb 9, 2004)

correct


----------



## i hate ram (Jul 28, 2003)

i live in connecticut, USA... if i use this service, is there ANY legality issues? the site isnt so specific.. but basically they dont garuntee legality to anyone outside the USA.

i want to be sure, first.


----------



## Solid_Froggy (Apr 2, 2004)

Sounds like there isn't.


----------



## i hate ram (Jul 28, 2003)

ive been reading a bunch of articles about this service, and some have even said that the site IS legal in the US.. i can't say i trust any of the sites though.


any other feedback?


----------



## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Of course it isn't legal in the US. Common sense would dictate that.


----------



## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Nope, I wouldn't think so, and until anyone can prove otherwise, closing thread.


----------



## cybertech (Apr 16, 2002)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/22/allofmp3_probe/


----------

