AllofMP3 has released its latest desktop music library and download tool AllTunes. Although the name is an obvious play on iTunes, those farmiliar with AllofMP3 will know that they are infamous for extremely cheap, high quality and quasi-legal music downloads on the web. AllTunes is a windows desktop or smartphone interface to the AllofMP3 library, allowing users to find and download high quality music easily. The model is simple, download the application, signup for an account, find music (amongst the 45,000 albums they have) click and download. The price is 2c per megabyte downloaded, which works out to be around $0,9-1.40 per album, much better than the $0.99c a song at iTunes.
The reason the prices are so low is because AllofMP3 and AllTunes operate in Russia, where they claim to comply with all local copyright law and paying royalties back to artists and labels. The legality of the service has been questioned several times. The European Union & record industry has brought the AllofMP3 to court but has lost in all instances on their efforts to shut down the service. However customers from outside Russia(the United States, EU and possibly other countries) may be violating the law of their home country when using this service.
The catalog is very broad, You can also find some rare international music as well as all the usual classics. The preview feature is just awesome, it allows you to listen to a low-quality version of each song from within the player - not just a snippet but the full song (as long as you have credit in your account). For sophisticated audiophiles, AllTunes allows you to download your songs in a variety of codes and bitrates, from almost-lossless through to 64kbps mp3. AllofMP3 has been a service I have constantly used for years now, and AllTunes has made it even better. I am certain these guys get a lot of business, I hope that instead of being shut down it forces the record labels to re-think their pricing strategies.
Another roundup about AllOfmp3.com:
- Pricing: By traffic - 20 US dollar for 1 gigabyte
- Platform(s): AllTunes.com utility for PC & Smartphone or via Browser for all platforms
- Downloading: Unlimited
- Burning/Copying: Unlimited
- Streaming: Samples
- Format(s): MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPC, Windows Media, MPEG-4, various lossless audio codecs
- Digital Rights Management: None
- Preview: Full-length at 24 kbit/s
- Catalog: about 600,000 songs
- Features: Guestbook for each artist, lyrics, charts, advanced search
- Warning: This is a Russian site, which apparently complies with Russian law. Customers in other countries may be violating the law of their home country.
This was seized 4 u at TechCrunch with a few additions from me. |
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Comments on "AllOfmp3 releases AllTunes"
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Am said ... (4/03/2006 02:35:20 PM) :
post a commentVery interesting post, thanks for the info. I live outside of russia but have been using this site for several years now. It rocks.
I've always wondered if I was flouting the law though. lol