Best value for legal music downloads you get to keep?

[Lowlander]

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.

[zamboni]

The point is whether or not the artists receive compensation which they do not from allofmp3.

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

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.

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 nothing from digital downloads.

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

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

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/sea ... 1003466811

[Steegy]

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 ).