Interesting news from the MP3 download cold war going on between the record industries and AllofMP3.com, the Russian MP3 download site which sells songs and albums for about 10% of what Apple iTunes and others do.
Under pressure from the record companies and their lobbyists, Visa International has begun to block payments to AllofMP3.
With the US Government also breathing down Russia’s neck about the music search & download site, AllofMP3.com “has claimed that it is protected by a license with the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) and license # 006/3M-05 of the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively, or FAIR”
International Herald Tribune reports that AllofMP3.com may be changing their monetization from micropurchases via Credit Card or online payment systems to being an advertising supported service:
AllofMP3 said Tuesday that as of Wednesday, its business model would move toward an ad-supported distribution of free content. The company, which previously charged about $1 an album, plans to offer consumers a new software program that allows them to download any song from the site for free. AllofMP3 claims to have a catalogue of hundreds of thousands of albums, increasing at a rate of 1,000 per month.
Users of the new service will only be able to listen to songs by using the AllofMP3 software, and the songs will be usable on just one computer at a time. The interface, called Music for the Masses, will initially be available for Microsoft Windows, with an Apple version arriving in several weeks.
Just have to wonder, what kind of advertising will that download be serving to substitute for the millions of dollars this company is making by distributing copyrighted & licensed material for next to nothing.
