p2pnet - rss feed: AllofMP3.com to Big Music
p2pnet.net News:- In a post, Medialoper (excellent logo 
correctly observes that the Big Four Organized Music cartel is going blind trying to destroy Russia’s AllofMP3.com
"While the industry has successfully litigated most file sharing networks out of existence, they haven’t had much luck stopping sites like MediaService’s AllofMP3," states Kirk Biglione.
"Despite the RIAA’s best efforts AllofMP3 continues to sell digital downloads to music lovers around the world, while technically complying with Russian copyright laws and licensing agreements. While complying with the laws of your country may seem like a loophole here in the United States, it makes perfect sense to a company that’s based in Russia."
Unfortunately for MediaServices, "there are signs the Russian government is planning to crack down on grey market download sites like AllofMP3 in an effort to gain admission into the World Trade Organization," says Medialoper, adding:
"Regardless of what you think about the legality of AllofMP3, there’s no denying that MediaServices has created one of the most innovative and consumer friendly digital music services around. AllofMP3 is so well done that the ‘legitimate’ recording industry could learn quite a bit by studying it. Hopefully the major labels will take a long look at AllofMP3 before it gets shut down."
Count on it, Kirk, and also count on seeing the RIAA’s owners, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG, eventually claiming AllofMP3.com’s concepts as their very own.
Meanwhile, Biglione says, the music industry could learn from AllofMP3, citing five points to consider, namely:
1. Digital Music Is About Freedom. It should come as no surprise that songs purchased from AllofMP3 are not restricted by DRM. As a result, AllofMP3’s customers have the Freedom to play their music on any device. While eMusic and a few other services sell unencrypted music, AllofMP3 is the only service to offer a full catalog of unencrypted albums from major labels, as well as independent artists. The recording industry would have you believe that they can’t make money selling DRM-free music - yet that’s exactly what AllofMP3 is doing. If the industry’s arguments were correct then AllofMP3 wouldn’t be selling many songs.
2. Digital Music Is About Flexibility. Because AllofMP3 isn’t tied to a proprietary DRM system they’re free to encode their music in a number of widely supported formats. AllofMP3 is the only site that I know of that allows consumers to choose their preferred format. Mp3, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, take your pick.
3. Quality Matters. AllofMP3 is the only digital music service that openly acknowledges the quality limitations of lossy digital music formats. Not surprisingly, it’s also the only service that I know of that sells digital music in lossless formats. In addition to the lossy formats noted above, AllofMP3 allows quality conscious consumers to download music in four lossless formats, including: FLAC, Monkeys Audio, OptimFROG, and WAV.
4. The Price Of Digital Music Should Reflect Actual Value. AllofMP3 has a unique approach to pricing - they charge a flat rate per megabyte. As a result, song prices are based on the length of the song and the quality of the encoding. As I mentioned above, AllofMP3 offers consumers music in no less than eight digital formats. They also allow consumers to choose the bitrate of the encoding. Logically, higher bitrate files cost more to download because the file size is larger. As a result, price is reasonably reflective of the value the consumer receives when he downloads a song. Better yet, consumers can save money by buying music encoded at a lower quality. At some point a consumer may choose to re-purchase a song or album at a higher quality. It’s not unlike what happens today when the labels release a re-mastered CD with improved sound quality, except in AllofMP3’s model the consumer is always in control.
5. You Can Sell Music By Giving It Away. Last week AllofMP3 announced that they were essentially giving their entire catalogue away for free. Users can download an unlimited number of songs in a low bitrate mp3 format for no cost. Of course there’s a catch, the songs will only play in AllofMP3’s proprietary player. While it sounds a bit like SpiralFrog ad supported music model, I have a feeling that it will also turn out to be a great way to sell music.
Given AllofMP3’s success over the past six years, there’s obviously a market for this kind of service. Rather than trying to shut AllofMP3 down, the music industry should be studying their business model and learning from what works.
Also See:
correctly observes - Five Lessons The Music Industry Can Learn From AllofMP3, October 23, 2005
trying to destroy - AllofMP3.com credit cards blocked, October 20, 2006
p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
October 25th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Beautifully put. Let’s add one more.
The AllOfMp3 model proves that an easy to use low price service that sells what the customer wants can compete with free. P2P maybe free but it’s not without it’s cost in effort. And people will pay money to avoid that effort and get a reliable predictable product and experience.
I still dream of an entirely authorised AllofMp3 like service in the west fiollowed by a project Gutenberg like effort to put every bit of released audio ever up on the service. Mainly because there are deleted back catalogue albums from 10-40 years ago that I still want and simply can’t obtain anywhere.