Let's not forget that "well known" artists get waaay too much money (a few pennies per record still means huge sums for some). "Less known" artists get too few money (this part seems kind of logical; I also don't get money to sing :-?).

[quote="Mthrsuperior"]
The point is whether or not the artists receive compensation which they do not from allofmp3.[/quote]

Without debating the legality of AllOfMP3, I would just like to point out one concrete fact:

[b]Artists, today, get almost the exact same amount of royalty money from tracks downloaded via AllOfMP3... as they do from iTunes or any other source[/b].

What, you say?

Yup - barely pennies. It has been in the news recently. NONE of their contracts require royalty payments for "non-physical" distribution. There are portions for "licensing" (as in movies). Sadly, most of the money Apple pays to the music industry goes to... well, not the artists. It goes to the obscene salaries their executives make, and to the lawyers who sue, and pays for their country club memberships, etc. Almost nothing goes to artists.

Given that fact, I support AllOfMP3. I'd rather NOTwaste money paying already-wealthy-executives-and-lawyers...

If AllOfMP3 paid just an extra 10 cents to the artists, that would be double what even big names are getting from the crooks. The RIAA crooks pay about 4 cents, and pocket the rest. Lesser, unknown, and new artists, often get [b]nothing[/b] from digital downloads.

http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/4310.html

If that is not bad enough, in November, 2006, [b]The RIAA petitioned the US to let them [u]DECREASE[/u] royalty payments to artists[/b]

Something about them "earning too much money" from ring-tones "and other digital distribution" (the last... is iTunes!!!!!!)

http://gear.ign.com/articles/749/749883p1.html
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003466811

The thing is though, as long as no one has the balls to fight the RIAA (yes, I know, they drop the case when you fight back), the RIAA is the law.

But in this case it's fairly simple for me, if the rights institutions say that AllofMP3 doesn't have their permission, they don't. That Russian rights organization is shady and AllofMP3 is strange at best. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea to purchase there as there is sufficient doubt about legalities. The main problem though is that many countries have a law containing something like if you could have had reasonable doubt about the legality of the goods your are on the wrong side of the law.

@Mthrsuperior, if you are in a cold place I was glad to give you some warm moments, otherwise I'm sorry, hehe.

Awww c'mon, it's all love at this time of the year :D

Don't hate me because I'm clever.

:P

Yes he does? The last.FM sig at the bottom of his post :o

You don't have a signature

[quote="Lowlander"]T

It's fairly safe to say that if the RIAA says it's illegal that it probably is illegal in the USA. [/quote]

That's the first time you've ever said anything I disagree with and I disagree so much I'm sweating.
:lol:

The RIAA operates almost exclusively outside the law.
I'll spare you any further ranting but you can find links on last.fm page by clicking my sig.

The whole credit card thing is probably run through some construction of different companies. The Russian authorities have said that AllofMP3 will be closed down and the company is fighting to survive at this point.

It's fairly safe to say that if the RIAA says it's illegal that it probably is illegal in the USA. The same goes for most countries where their respective rights organizations say that it's illegal.

The problem with DRM free shops is the lack of mainstream music in most cases. This is due to the labels not selling non-DRM music. The problem with DRM shops is the lack of quality of the songs and the limitations DRM put on the song (hardware/software needs to support it).

So AllofMP3 sounds good after all, but I would be careful in the way you do business with them so that you can't be ripped off.

They do that around holidays and stuff.

You also get a % bonus depending on how much you've spent total over time.

I wonder if that's why allofmp3 is having a "sale" by adding 20% onto each prepay?

I'd be curious to know how long you are able to do so.

Each bank has different policies I'm not really sure how much "authority" mastercard/visa have as a "franchise"
I just tried for the heck of it and my Mastercard won't approve.

I read that link and googled allofmp3 and mastercard and read how they've stopped accepting payments and yet I've still used Mastercard on the actual allofmp3 site as recently as yesterday with no problems at all.

[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6065492.stm[/url]

[quote="Mthrsuperior"]Starting in 2007 you will no longer be able to use Visa or Mastercard for their services from *any* country.
[/quote]

Just curious, where did you hear this? Right now I use allofmp3 with my Mastercard (Visa isn't an option) and they seem to be accepting payments without a problem.