Wednesday, June 07, 2006

"All of MP3" All Over Detractors

You might have heard of (or even used) the music download site "All of mp3.com". This site is hosted in Russia and offers customers downloads of music in several formats and bitrates, charging on a per megabyte rate. The RIAA and others have tried to shut this site down for quite some time. However, All of MP3 is apparently legal in Russia, or at least enough that their government doesn't go after them.

Recently, the US state department has pushed Russia to shut down this "pirate site", further claiming they don't compensate the music makers. The current owners of All of MP3 have responded with a very clear letter. You can read it here.

Personally, I find All of MP3 to be very professionally done. I'm impressed with the selection and service they offer. Perhaps its costs are artficially low, but their sales model is very logical to me. My guess is that more folks in Japan would use this service over the pricey Japanese version of iTunes if they knew about it.

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