This topic has come up in another thread but I thought I'd start a new one devoted soley to it. I am a big fan of the apple music store but for some stuff allofmp3.com is WAY cheaper.

I did a bunch of googling and found what appear to be independent reviews saying that they had good dealings with the company and that there hadn't been any fraud issues with the payment company.

So far, so good. Anyone else have any experiences (good or bad) to share? So far my only complaint is that the interface for managing the downloads isn't all that hot -- but for the price I won't complain.

Gotta jet! I have some more old Depeche Mode in my queue.

I've been using them for six months or so with zero problems, payment or otherwise.

For downloads, you have to download their allofmp3 explorer software. Once you have it, you don't even need the website anymore. It manages your downloads in the background, lets you search and browse with a much better and faster UI, and displays your current balance. The only thing missing is the recommendations/other people bought feature, which I kind of like. But you can hit the web once in a while when you're curious.

It took me two months to burn through the first $25 I spent there.

I too am happy with iTMS but sometimes the songs or artists I'm looking for are not in their library.

So first off, is allofmp3.com legit in the sense that they pay royalty to the artists or might I run afoul of the RIAA if I download songs from them? Secondly, how extensive is their music inventory and what genre do they specialize in?

I don't think you can run afoul of the RIAA. Check out this link for more details: http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

The music selection is hit and miss. It's not near as extensive as iTMS but it's about 20X cheaper and doesn't come with any technological restrictions (like Fairplay) on how it's used.

Your mileage may vary, but so far they've had around 50% of what I was looking for. Not good enough to keep my business at "normal" prices, but at their rates, I am willing to pick through their stuff.

The explorer program that they offer (mentioned above in alanw's post, works in the Windows environment only, so I haven't tried it out.

I am not sure if the artists recieve any royalties. If they do, it's not much, I'd guess. I don't feel bad about it though. If it's truly legal, and my research indicates that it is, hooray for me! Depeche Mode never thought twice about charging me crazy sums like $18.99 for a new release that had songs on it from previous releases. Now it's my chance to get music significantly cheaper.

I don't like the idea of stealing music -- but I don't mind using export law loopholes to get it on the cheap.

Just my two cents,
-eastwest

My understanding is that they're paying royalties for each download on the same scale as if it were played on the radio in Russia.

Download without fear of the RIAA comrade!

Regardless on how safe your credit card is, I still think it funds the Russian mafia somehow.

I use RealRhapsody, but all3mp3.com might be an excellent supplemental for my iPod.

What is iTMS? Is it iTunes Music Store?

Yup.


So an album costs ONLY $0.50? a song costs ONLY $0.05?? Sorry if I sound too skeptical but y'all know the old saying: if it's too good to be true...

Well, it's true, but it may be too good anyway. Depends how you feel about things being "legal" on the basis that confiscating the performer's work has been legalized in Russia.

(Loose analogy: The nation of Nowherazil passes a law that says robbing red-headed people is legal. You go there, rob a red-headed person, and bring the proceeds back to the U.S. and buy dinner. You have broken no laws.)

The nicest feature of allmofmp3 (aside from NO DRM) is that you can choose encoding formats including lossless, RAW CDA, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, MP3, and Windows Media, and the bitrate. I usually download 256kb MP3 files, so wind up paying more. Depending on the album this can be as high as 85 cents!

That's exactly why I stopped using allofmp3.com, even though I liked it very much.

For those of you reluctant to give our comrades in the former Soviet Union your credit card number, allofmp3.com's paypal link is now working again. ^ ^ ^

When I login I get:

PayPal
Sorry, service temporary unavailable.

Alas, payment through paypal is still "temporary unavailable." (sic)

If you have a Citibank credit card you can generate a single-use credit card number for depositing money to your allofmp3 account.

I have never used them to download music but I just checked out their website and was very impressed.

Looks like they have their own lossless format. Are there converters available to go from their lossless format to wav, and/or does dbPowerAmp understand their lossless format?

Thanks,
David