What is Digg?137 Comments
- dekkerd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28 And they blew off emusic with " is focused on independent labels, and we’ve removed it from the comparison even though it offers DRM-free music at an attractive price ($0.25 per song)."
WTF?
The best choice IMHO. Setting aside the indy angle(big plus for me), why would you ignore the site with DRM free content?
And they left out audiolunchbox as well.
Feel free to ridicule my musical choices
http://www.emusic.com/profile/index.html?nickname=dekkerd - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21AllOfMp3 is the best in that comparison, only one without DRM.
- Herolint, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I completely agree in regards to allofmp3. They have almost everything and the prices are cheap enough to encourage exploration into the unfamiliar.
The other sites like iTunes are just too expensive to make exploring new music an option. Why the music industry can't see that is beyond me. Perhaps they are just retarded. - mesostinky, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16The Indie angle is the only thing that matters though. People simply aren't interested. It's not all about "the general public is stupid and only listens to top 10" either. There is a lot more to Itunes et al then that including plenty of great music.
Personally I think DRM sucks and its patently unfair that after being able to do what we want with CDs for 25 years suddenly now they have to bring in restrictions. But you know what? There isn't a dam thing that you or I can do to stop that including only supporting unknown non-RIAA artists. Life is waaay to short to worry about crap like this. Buy and listen what music you like and be done with it. - Walking.Dude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"Not many people complained about the price of music until the Internet gave people the alternative to download it for free. Now, EVERYBODY complains about the price of music. Why is that?"
I complained. I found outrageous that the price of CDs seemed to continue to go up at a much higher rate than inflation. When CDs debuted they routinely sold for around 10-12 bucks. By the late 90's the retail price went up to 18-20 bucks while the manufacturing and distribution costs moved almost to zero. Why? Well it turns out it was an orchestrated attempt by the record industry to keep prices artificially high by forcing retailers to sell well above wholesale.
I think it was Best Buy that sued, because they wanted to offer CDs at cost to lure buyers into the store. - Subtonic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Yup. Gotta say Emusic is the best. With it's focus on indie labels and everyone pissed at the RIAA and upset about DRM it's a wonder that it doesn't have more users...although that looks like it's changing.
- tmcpheeters, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11AllOfMP3 is sorta like fight club. The first rule of AllOfMP3 is don't talk about AllOfMP3... We all know it's great, why do we keep trying to bring it up in the news? Just leave well enough alone before it's gone.
- omegadan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11No, emusic *USED* to be good. The problem with emusic is 99% of it is utter crap. I had a subscription years ago when it was all you can eat ... and I'd say about one out of every 10 albums was worth listening to, and 1 out of 50 was "good". I downloaded about 500 albums, and out of those I kept 50 or so. That was fine when it was all you can eat ...
But now that you have to pay 25c per song, the fact that its 99% crap *REALLY* hurts. - klacour, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Another, older review of allofmp3:
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3info.htm
There is a much better explanation of the service and its "legality" - to say that the artist do not get paid is incorrect. Payments are made by allofmp3 to the Russian copyright "clearinghouse" - similar to ASCAP in the USA. (Very) simply put - one of the biggest reasons allofmp3 cost less is because the fees in Russia are much, much less than the fees imposed by ASCAP and the like in the US.
Once again, we all have to be reminded that "legality" cannot be imposed cross-borders. US laws and copyright restrictions do NOT apply anywhere but in the US.
Oh yeah, and US copyright laws suck. - LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Have you ever bought an iTunes song? Its sometimes better than a CD"
That isn't POSSIBLE! Any song that is ripped from a CD (the original source, studio recording after mastery) is going to be worse quality. By ripping a song, you know what you're doing to it? Ripping out data that the codec sees as unnecessary. By removing anything from a song, it is losing quality and therefore sounds worse. What you're suggesting is lunacy. Understand what you're talking about before you comment on it. - MichaelDaley, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11I don't question Allofmp3's legality because I don't care. Everybody is either saying "you can use it because of this loophole" or "no you can't it's illegal". I'm going to use it regardless because I don't need a loophole to justify my actions; I really love cheap music. If it means that the artists have to lose money until a fair system of distributing intellectual property is set up, then I'm okay with that. What does it matter if it's legal? Go to wal-mart and buy something legally that was made in a third-world country for an inhuman wage and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'd rather break the law and screw a millionaire out of 30 cents then work within it and perpetuate exploitation somewhere else.
- loftx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Why doesn't some enterprising Russian start a site like AllOfMp3 with slightly higher prices which gives a cut to the artists and songwriters? I'd be far happier using something on shaky legal ground if I know the artists are getting a fair cut.
On the other hand, how much do the artists get out of the 99c itunes charges? - bdbr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"allofmp3 is illegal,people pretend it isnt. if it was the RIAA would have it in their list of legal music providers"
This is the same RIAA that gives artists less than 10% of a CD's price, yet when discussing CD pricing says, " Of course, the most important component of a CD is the artist’s effort in developing that music" ? You consider them a trustworthy source?
If you want to claim its illegal in the US, the CITE THE LAW. I've linked to cites from lawyers who've reviewed the pertaining laws and didn't find any reason it would be illegal. - iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Quit spreading FUD. You read something that someone posted about SOME Russian SITES, *NOT* ALLOFMP3.com - get your facts straight. I can tell you of hundreds of U.S. Web sites that commit credit card fraud. Stop pushing the RIAA ***** propaganda.
- gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12I wouldn't have a problem with AllofMP3.com if they paid the artists and labels. They don't have to pay what they're asking, just send them money proportional to what people are downloading as "gifts" or something. As it is, I don't morally want to support a site for which the artists see none of the profits of their work. One could argue that this site is worse than filesharing because people have a sense of "paying for" their music and won't feel the need to ever go out and actually buy the CD.
- bdbr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6OK, let's have some clarity here:
1. "Haven't you been reading Digg? These Russian sites (AllofMP3.com) are being accussed of credit card fraud." - Since Allofmp3 doesn't process credit cards, it can't reasonably be accused of credit card fraud. AllofMP3 uses Chronopay for credit card payment. Chronopay is a Visa- and Mastercard-certified service in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2. "So officially yes, they do get paid for allofmp3.com downloads." - only barely true. If you buy a song on iTunes, they get 10 cents. If you buy a song on allofmp3 for two cents, the artist may get a small fraction of that. Whatever they get, if anything, will be much closer to zero than any other number.
3. "It is legal IF you live INSIDE rusia. In all other contrys its ILLEGAL." - generally untrue, though every country will have its own laws (or lack thereof). The website would certainly be illegal in the US if that is where it existed, but it doesn't. For the downloader, the applicable laws are export laws, which at this point don't indicate that it is illegal. The fact that the RIAA has made no statement of its legality says something as well. More on the legality issue here: http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm
I'm not condoning allofmp3; I believe it still has ethical issues and may have legal issues some time in the future. I'm a big fan emusic.com. - spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I posted information stating why allofmp3 is legal (allbeit going through loop holes) and people in response say it's illegal stop fooling yourself, well I post information that says it's not, so how about you post some refuting my statement. As already stated I use allofmp3 for speed and for quality, not because I'm sticking it to the man, I still download stuff off of itunes and still download stuff off of P2P.
It may not be the most honest business ever, but it's not like anything in the USA is still being honest in their business practices, we all just choose different things to ignore.
It's the technological version of child labor in china. And I bet 99% of you have stuff that says made in China. - cyclotron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Not many people complained about the price of music "
So UNTRUE. I worked in a record store for two years. When CDs came about, Cassete singles, and CD singles came about. MOST people complain. Especially when the new U@ or what ever is popular comes out to be $1.50-$2.00 a song. 1 dollar = 1 song seems to be the favorite "Nice Price" - ylocav, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6you missed the important part he said -
'eMusic is an awesome service - the side by side table comparision didn’t give it the credit it deserves.' - iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You need to research the US import laws, then you'll quickly shut up.
- mesostinky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I think .25 per song is fair. 1.00 is a bit high but not the worst thing in the world. Apparantly though that isn't enough for the greedy bastards at the RIAA because they are trying to force Itunes to charge $2-$3 dollars a song.
- TomUK, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9Yes, a lot of people usually point out that it is probably technically legal to use Allofmp3 (i.e. no chance of prosecution even when outside of Russia). But, it seems clear to me that is morally wrong; the actual "artists" are getting 0% of your money*.
Personally, I won't be using any music download services until I can get lossless quality for a reasonable price**, with the right to use (re-encode/transfer) the music as I wish. Unfortunately, this will probably never happen, at least from a major label/music organisation.
*ok, I know they sell Russian music too, so maybe they do get a cut.
**i'd also like to see high quality album art available so that a digital music download feels more like a complete package. - iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6You're full of *****. They get less than 10% from the RIAA.. you work for the RIAA or something? what a bigot. Every look at how much the artist actually get from ITUNES? Not much. Research. They do get little (but proportionate) from the Russians, matter you want to believe it or not.
- ender52, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6omegadan, 99% of all music from anywhere is crap.
- spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7personally I use allofmp3 because I can get 320kbpsec versions of my music, you can't even get that off most torrents.
Do the artists get paid from allofmp3.com
'Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS). According to license № ЛС-ЗМ-02-36 the Internet-project www.allofmp3.com, has the right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And Related Rights Law.
ROMS manages intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to artists. Both Russian and foreign. "
So officially yes, they do get paid for allofmp3.com downloads. - deut, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8...cause it's less hassle, cheap, I get the quality I want, it's 100% legal and hence free of any lawsuit from the RIAA.
OK - questionable morality - but since when did you guys suddenly remember morals when it came to business? - Remember Enron?
If we all agree that the RIAA & Russians are all rob-dogs then we may as well do ourselves a favour and go with the cheapest. - eherberg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7The main reason I use it over traditional file-sharing is because of the quality of the mp3's. If I download something from a file-sharing network - how do I know the person who ripped knew what they were doing? Did they use LAME VBR ... or MusicMatch (ugh)? This way I get all the songs from an album I want --- with an encoding that I consider acceptable --- and no time spent in queues waiting for songs from different sources (all probably encoded differently). That's easily worth a buck to allofmp3 for that convenience.
- scotty1024, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Its my money, I can give it to allofmp3 and vote my dollars against the RIAA insanity.
I was very happy to vote my dollars to iTMS but with the continuing "Steve is ripping us off" stories sponsored by the RIAA I don't think they deserve even $.70 per song.
I don't think the Russian music clearing federation is poor mouthing my money. The RIAA needs to learn to respect their customers, them running around saying we're not paying enough is very disrespectful to us. - iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I guess you're blinded. Do some research on import laws.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8The problem is, AllOfMP3 is still in legal limbo land. Nobody's exactly sure if it's legal or not because of all of the copyright and legal loopholes it has to jump through.
Sure, it's going to be a lot better if it is legal, by far. But it would have been a lot better on a comparison level if they would have left it out because of its legal limbo status. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Guys, in case you still don't know: Allofmp3 pays fees to the Russian version of the ASCAP which pays the artists (even American ones). The artists simply registers with this body and they get paid their cut.
So it's incorrect to say that the artists get nothing. - cyclotron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Duet, unfortunately, as the music industry is putting pressure on apple to raise the price, its about greed and exploiting supply and demand. These are the same fools that originally priced pre-recorded video $30-150 a movie. It to Speilburg and ET for them to realize a $15 movie would sell so many more copies.
I am not saying you are wrong about consumers, just that theri is no hope for the music industry to realize the wisdom in selling at a low price. - Strahd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"As for allofmp3.com, is it really even legal? I hear a lot of varying opinions on that, but no real answers."
Welcome to the internet age. The confusion surrounding Allofmp3's legality is very understandable. International law is extremely complex when dealing with "real" goods/services and contracts...and trying to determine legal jurisdiction with allofmp3 is a pain in the ass. I'm a buyer in the United States, paying with a credit card that gets processed by a Dutch company, and money ends up in the hands of a Russian firm. Whose law applies? The Russians say their law applies, and their downloads are legal because the United States allows you to import goods from a foreign country, but no one is sure if that provision applies to downloads. Truthfully speaking the law hasn't caught up yet.
In my opinion, if Nike and Coca Cola can get the advantages of low cost labor overseas, I should also be able to reap the benefits of offshoring myself. After all, it IS a global economy, right? - Roscoe1976, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Weak guide IMO, its like 3 paragraphs long. Here is a better one: http://reviews.designtechnica.com/guide33.html
- redcard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have a friend who is an indie artist who sells through Itunes, CDBaby, Napster, AllOfMp3, etc.
When he releases new music to those services, we place orders in a particular pattern so as to count the royalties coming in (And to make sure that it's all linked together.)
Guess which one service still has not paid my friend? Yep. AllOfMP3.
Use them if you want, but don't believe the lie that they pay the artists. That's just simply not true. - Psykus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5The artists aren't getting your money anyways, if you buy it on CD or from other RIAA sanctioned sources.
- dekkerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@karyyk- That's the whole quote now. When this article was dugg, this part "eMusic is an awesome service - the side by side table comparision didn’t give it the credit it deserves." was not there. The updated article posted to my bloglines account around 3pm edt.
- deut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"Of course they could never go that cheap" Why not?
Do they not realise that if tracks were 10c each, EVERYONE on the fricken planet would buy into that and that P2P would be annihilated overnight?
It really is a no brainer. It just needs some guts from the RIAA to realise this very simple fact and go for it. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7hmm...I tried eMusic recently and could not find a single song to download with the 25 free downloads that eMusic game me for signing up. So it makes sense why they left it out of the main comparison. They did make a mention of them so I don't think they "blew off" eMusic all together.
- RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I said this already. They don't listen! All this attention All is getting will just make the RIAA legal vampires double their efforts.
- MarkByers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3First you purchase it legally under Russian law, and then you import it. Read the importation laws for your country to see if it is legal to import music. I don't know of any countries that prohibit importing legally purchased music from other countries (although I expect that this will change in the not too distant future).
- ajb2015, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5the indie angle makes emusic even more attractive. you don't have to support riaa, while at the same time you support great bands.
- cyclotron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I was reading english when I clicked to signup... And I am only citing news posted here on Digg. If it doesnt include allof MP3.com, I wasnt aware.
"128kbps AAC" "Why pay $15 for 15 low quality audio files"
Have you ever bought an iTunes song? Its sometimes better than a CD. Besides, I think you are confusing ACC with MP3. They really are two differnt levels. Not long ago someone posted a review of apples format by a recording industy engineer. He said he couldnt hear the difference. I am not sure if you actually ever compared a CD to iTMS ACC yourself.
"when you can buy the CD for less on Amazon?"
I dont think you are factoring in time to deliver and shipping costs (and tax?), but whenever I want a full album, I do buy from Amazon, used. I am not saying Apple is the best or the only way. In fact, a reasonable person wouldnt include Amazon in a comparrison of downloading sites. - crackityjonesjr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4You really need to read up about both of these services.
AllofMP3's TOS is in English if you are accessing their English language site. Also, they have NEVER wrongly charged my credit card or the credit cards of my friends.
iTunes has long been compatible with both Mac & PC users. Regarding iTunes: do people really think that 99 cents a song is a good price for 128kbps AAC? I don't. Why pay $15 for 15 low quality audio files when you can buy the CD for less on Amazon? - operator99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Depends what you are into - Emusic has the entire Naxos Classical catalog - great and varied recordings - the complete Verve Jazz back catalog and stuff from many other smaller labels. Good choices for some folks and not for others, but the service itself is very nice - responsive and I think, properly priced. The bigger problem seems to be many people are quite limited in their listening habits and stuck in only a few genres - partly the fault of the media and partly because of peer pressure - "you listen to that - you're an idiot".
- qiemem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for this post, a lot misinformation floating around this discussion.
Just to spell out some of the specifics (this is mostly based off the faq site you linked to):
allofmp3.com is legal in Russia (duh), mostly because of loopholes (though its unlikely that these loopholes will be closed any time soon, if at all; read the faq), and it is legal for people in the US to download from according to import law as long as the download is for personal use only, not for any sort of distribution.
allofmp3.com pays monthly fees to ROMS (Russian RIAA, as far as I can tell), which in turn pays copyright holders. So, while it may be a miniscule amount per song (as songs are so cheap), artists are getting payed here.
A few minutes reading the faq and some of its links tells loads.
Oh, quick question too: I remember reading about a site in which the majority of profits went directly to the artists. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? What's the site? - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Emusic is high-quality VBR encoded. Usualy around 292-192kbps. 320k is just unnecesary.
- ghelton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@omegadan
How can you even say what emusic is like when you had a subscription A FEW YEARS ago. your wrong
@Cyclotron
Emusic doesnt require anything but a browser. You can use thier download manager for windows and mac but its not neccesary. - cyclotron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Minidawn on one hand is Mac and Linux compatible, but their price scheme is odd, paying per minute. But you also have to convert the file before it can go on iPod, thus nullify its advantage over the burn+rip proccess you cna do with iTunes. Also, their facts are filled with half truths and misconceptions about their competitors. Didnt recognize very many artists...
MP3tunes dosent appear to sell songs.
This whole iTunes "rents" songs is *****. I pay once and then its mine forever. Additionally, because I actually use the service, I know how to play it on any system or player that can play an MP3. - 68kMac, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8Emusic DOES have lots and lots of new music - just not from the names you may be familiar with. That's the indie angle of it and I for one love it ...
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