Is AllofMP3.com doomed?
p2pnet.net news view:- Friday the Americans and the Russians came to terms over their trade differences, leading the US to OK Russian entry into the World Trade organization. The pact covers several grievances, one of them focused on Russia’s poor track record on intellectual property rights. The poster boy for this issue became Russian music service AllofMP3.com, which was elevated to this dubious position thanks to a British report. The report found that AllofMP3 was the number two service in the UK, behind only Apple, with an impressive 15% of the regional market. Indeed, AllofMP3’s low prices for music tracks combined with their availability in multiple formats without interoperability-killing DRM arguably made it the second most popular service worldwide, an achievment supported by Alexa figures.
The question now is will the Russians take steps to close the service down immediately or wait until its formal entry into the WTO, still threatened by former soviet satellites Moldova and Georgia.
But then maybe the point is moot? The other month the entertainment industry successfully convinced the major credit card companies including Visa and Mastercard to cut off AllofMP3. With its main source of international money exchange removed, AllofMP3 was forced to shift its business from a pay-per-track scheme to an advertised-based model. Whether the company can survive on the new model is debatable.
But if it is successful, then pressure will most likely be brought on Russia to honor its copyright commitments and take action against AllofMP3. That doesn’t necessarily mean closing the service as Russia could impose a government licensing commission to serve as intermediary between the worldwide record industry and the Russian digital record market.
But then again the well is tainted for a record industry who may take an “anybody BUT AllofMP3″ stance. For its part AllofMP3 says it adheres exactly to existing Russian law, paying royalties to two services including the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROM). The big question that is never anwered one way or the other is simply this: is ROM legit? No one, including the press or the Russian government, has answered this question and I’ll be damned if I have been able to find out.
I still want to know, but then in the world of international politics it probably does not matter anymore. Once AllofMP3 became a WTO bargaining chip its days were numbered.
Rich Menta – MP3NewsWire
p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
November 12th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Not sure I should say this. But you can buy XROST cards with Click and Buy. Click and Buy accept Visa/Mastercard. Allofmp3 accepts Xrost. Problem solved. For the moment.
November 13th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Facts for you! (since you seem unsure)
- Allofmp3 still has a working Visa / Mastercard operator. It’s mot the dutch one as before, but a russian one. This is business. Do you think Visa and Mastercard would refuse business to the number 2 on-line music shop in the world? You can buy weapons with Visa, I don’t think morality is a major issue here (not that it should).
- ROMS is a legitimate businesses (they are not l3g1t though, but they are legitimate) they collect royalities payments within russia.
- allofmp3 does not pay royalities directly to labels (cited ast the major reason why they are illegal), but no one within russia ever does! CD manufacturers and retailers, radio stations, etc. pay directly to ROMS (and similar agencies, there are several within the country), just like allofmp3. Russia has a global agreement with the labels, they pay a flat fee for all their licensing needs, and companies like ROMS collect fees internally to recoup their costs and probably make some profit as well.
“allofmp3 is doomed” talk has been around for years. Fact is, they are a legitimate business within a legitimate country, even if the labels don’t like this. They would like to shut it down, but it’s like trying to shut down I don’t know, Yahoo from China. And yes, the labels have a lot of PR leverage to make you believe that there is something wrong going on here, whereas there isn’t.
Also, russia has been very clear about this on the WTO talks. They will not even consider phony requests like this. In fact them shutting down allofmp3 at the request of the labels would be illegal. No government in their right minds would willingly disrespect their own legislation just because some business organization wants them to.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
does allofmp3 still accept XROST? on the refill balance page, I didn’t find that as an option anymore. Or, I may just be an idiot & didn’t find it.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
i re-fill my balance via the alltunes site http://www.alltunes.com/ which is linked to allofmp3.com
November 15th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
you do not pay them direct so it still works
November 19th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
alltune only accepts JCB and Diners Club.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:53 am