p2pnet - rss feed: AllofMP3.com thrashes Napster
p2p news / p2pnet: Here’s a surprise. Russia’s AllofMP3.com is more popular than the disinterred Napster, says XTN, basing its finding on Alexa.com stats.
Actually, given Napster’s dismal performance, that’s not much of a compliment.
Moreover, Alexa.com data are far from representative and in the real world of online music, AllofMP3.com downloads probably easily exceed those of iTunes, usually cited by the lamescream media as the standard for the all-but non-existent corporate music industry online music business.
Nonetheless, it’s an interesting finding.
“According to XTN, Apple’s iTunes Music Store accounted for 44 per cent of music download purchases in the UK last month,” says The Register. AllofMP3.com came in second, with a 14 per cent market share. That puts it ahead of Napster (eight per cent), Wippit (six per cent) and MSN (six per cent) among the nation’s top-five digital music suppliers.”
AllofMP3.com, which sells its tunes for mere cents based on download size versus the $1 and more charged by iTunes for individual files, says it’s legal by virtue of the fact it’s licenced through its parent company and the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society and the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively.
It also says some of the money goes back to the artists.
“Under Russian law, the licence permits the company to sell any song in any format, the site claims, without necessarily first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder,” the story points out, going on:
“That, says the music industry, puts the site beyond the pale. But while the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is certainly keeping its eye on the site, it has yet to take any direct action against it. Last year, it made a formal complaint to the Russian authorities, only to see Moscow prosecutors drop the case because a loophole in the country’s copyright laws, which are geared toward the protection of content of physical media.”
Meanwhile, when we went over to AllofMP3.com to see how things are going, we found, “Приносим свои извинения, сервер остановлен на обслуживание (We are sorry but the server is closed for maintainance).
[Have you checked it out lately, Julian?]
Meanwhile, speaking of iTunes, in March AllofMP3.com released a beta of its allTunes.
Also See:
XTN - Napster vs AllOfMP3, March 26, 2006
The Register - Russian MP3 sales site ‘more popular in UK than Napster’, May 12, 2006
it’s licenced - Downloads: 1 cent a pop, April 28, 2004
allTunes - AllofMP3’s allTunes, March 30, 2006
May 13th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
That’s global competition for you. The music companies will probably get this concept right about when they go broke.
May 14th, 2006 at 11:05 am
What I really want is a mainstream legal site in the west that uses the AllOfMp3 model. Much as I like AllOfMp3 I have a slight moral dilemma over whether any money ever makes it out of ROMS and back to the rights holders. This is not really AllOfMp3’s problem as they’re playing by the (local) book. But it does taint the experience somewhat.
But it’s all about competition, right? if AllOfMp3 exists somewhere in the world it’s competition for all the brain damaged “Official” download sites.
Anyroadup. Cheap and easy beats free and hard.
May 15th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/15/technology/business2_browser0515/index.htm?section=money_latest