Great new source of mp3s

**Forge42** · 07-06-06, 10:52 AM

Imagine this:

One day, Steve Jobs calls you.

"Hello!" he says. "You know, you are such a great person, I've decided to cut you some slack on iTunes. From now on, all your music on iTunes is 90% off."

"Fantastic" you reply. Think of it.. songs for 10 cents each!! Oh, the possibilities!

"Hang on," Steve says, "I'm not done yet. I've had a change of heart about this evil DRM and format thing I've been doing. I've decided that you should be able to download your music in any one of a number of formats... I'll even let you pick your bit rate. I'm also going to remove DRM for you too. It is your music... it is your decision what you want to do with it."

Tears of joy stream down your face. It's finally happened... a legal source of music that is friendly to any music player out there. Oh joy!

{/end goofy sales pitch analogy}

Ok.. seriously folks... I've found a new source of music:

http://www.allofmp3.com

Here's the skinny:

Individual songs are about 0.10USD
Albums are around 1.00USD
You can download in several different formats including -- mp3,WMA,OGG, MPEG-4, and MPC
You can pick your bitrate -- 128, 192, or 320 kbps

You have to deposit funds in an account with them. I started mine with $15. Then, as you download, the cost is deducted from your balance. There is no monthly fee. Their selection is quite good. Just about anything "mainstream" will be there. I have found a few things that iTunes has that these guys don't, but, it was pretty obscure stuff. I would think that most people could use this service for 95% of their music needs or better. You can do everything through the website, if you want. However, they also have a download manager program called AllTunes that you can download for free. It's about 3meg. It basically functions like the 'Music Store' section of iTunes and it will manage all your downloads from allofmp3.

I honestly have no idea how they are so cheap. I suppose that depositing the money up front lets them make some money off of the interest. The site is owned by a russian company, so, perhaps they aren't paying as many royalties (if any). Perhaps the overhead for a website of this nature is much less in Russia as well.

Nevertheless, it is a great source of music. I have used them for a couple of days now and they seem totally legit. I wanted to share this little tip with the community here, since I've received so many tips from Aximsite users in the past.

And, before anyone asks.. no, I'm not affiliated with the site at all. I'm just a music fan in Ohio that heard about this from a friend. When I found out how great the service worked, I thought I'd share.

silentknight · 07-06-06, 11:06 AM

The reason they are so cheap is the site is based in russia... and they get around legaly by going through some gray areas.. of importing 'arts' when you purchase... something like that.. i dont remember all the details.

But its great imo...

There was a thread on this a while ago..

Pocketbrain · 07-06-06, 11:10 AM

I wonder where the servers actually are. How long does it take to d/l a 5 min. song encoded at 320kbps?

(X)
.

**Forge42** · 07-06-06, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by PocketBrain

I wonder where the servers actually are. How long does it take to d/l a 5 min. song encoded at 320kbps?

(X)
.

Dunno. I haven't actually benchmarked them or anything. I downloaded an 80meg album this morning while I was taking a shower... probably about 10 minutes. That was on DSL.

I guess the only thing I can say for sure is that I haven't noticed any significant download lag while using them.

klomp10 · 07-06-06, 11:55 AM

They are also being/about to be sued, by a some British comunication's company.

goodguy20k · 07-06-06, 12:15 PM

So what do you think, would this be an honest place to by from? Those prices are VERY tempting.

lazyart · 07-06-06, 12:43 PM

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...s&ct=clnk&cd=1

psionandy · 07-06-06, 02:14 PM

Aren't you just paying for stolen property?

If you're honest you won't buy from them, if you're not you won't anyway

goodguy20k · 07-06-06, 06:18 PM

But if they uptained the files legally, and are abiding the laws, all is well and good, right? I guess I'll have to wait until the case ends. (Which is annoying... Those prices are SO tempting. ;-) )

krisdb · 07-06-06, 06:23 PM

I've been using allofmp3 for over 3 years now, never had a problem. Be sure to download the client, makes downloading alot easier. They were recently in the news (something about Russia can't join the WTO if they don't shutdown allofmp3), but, for now, its legit and worth using.

DaLabrador · 07-06-06, 07:15 PM

It is legal under russian law, the WTO threat is however real, so the russians are probably about to change it.
The loophole in russian law is that anyone can resell music as long as the artist gets a share (which actually makes some kind of sense. It's art/culture after all...). This is probably a relic from the communist era, when artists were very much appreciated.

Of course this upsets the IFPI and others, since they represent the middle hand that usually gets most of the money from sales.

Edit: Some artists try to adapt to the so called pirating, and try to start their own distribution systems. This will probably result in something very much like allofmp3, but by the artists - for the artists. The problem is commercials and such, but if all real musicians (i.e. not entertainers that only look good) start to believe in the by artists-for artists stuff, then we'd have something.
Oh. I forgot. Most artists would probably make more money but would have to work a bit more (gigs and such), but greed has probably made them stupid (as greed tends to to).

jnev · 07-06-06, 08:07 PM

if I were to buy a CD, rip it, and then start selling the tracks online, I'd be doing about what these guys are doing. legal in russia (wormhole), not legal anywhere else in the world (to my knowledge).

DaLabrador · 07-06-06, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by jnev

if I were to buy a CD, rip it, and then start selling the tracks online, I'd be doing about what these guys are doing.

No. Figure out why by yourself.

07-06-06, 08:55 PM

check out archive.org - tons of free live recordings authorized by the artists available for free

Shizelbs · 07-06-06, 09:33 PM

Compressed music sucks.