aaaaaaand I'm spent

those crazy russians
I don't know what they're up to
but I love them all

I just discovered something pretty darn cool.

www.allofmp3.com

I don't really know how it's legit, but supposedly it is. I googled and googled and googled and came up with a bunch of reviews and awards it's won so I gave in to temptation. I've been on the site all day downloading songs. So far I have both Shins albums, the new Bruce Springsteen album, the new Jack Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, and various singles (like Nina Simone's Sinnerman). Grand total spent? $9.38.

yep.

That's 61 songs.

You do the math.

This site sells CD-quality downloads - by the megabyte. You choose the quality and the encoding of the files you want and then you're charged accordingly. They claim to have Russian licenses for the music copyrights (through the russian version of the RIAA, called ROMS). Seems as though there's a loophole in Russia law that allows the site to be perfectly legal, but selling the music (or megabytes) to people outside of Russia is a little gray.

So I have possibly set myself up for identity theft by the russian mafia, and perhaps the FBI will come banging on my door demanding me to pay royalties for my 61 songs. But until then I'm pretty happy. I can finally listen to Elvis's A Little Less Conversation (the JXL remix) in my car. Fun.

Comments

[Mr. Conscience]

Oh my gosh, now think about this a lil bit and wonder aloud -- future published author -- do you think your $9.38 went to the artists? What portion thereof? Wonder what it means that people can download music, entire albums, for that amount. Wonder what your book will go for one day, in its entirety, and what penny or two, if anything, you'd receive. Sorry, but this sounds like piracy. On the other hand, iTunes is completely legit, and you have a new Mac!

[Kari]

I know, I know. Even though the site says they pay royalties, it's hard to see how they can. I've always told myself that when I download songs it's just to "test them out" and I'll buy the real album if I like the music.

Right.

That's kind of like shopping at a used bookstore and saying that if you like a book you'll go buy a new copy of it.

Here's a question, though... You have a place like BMG where you pay $20 for a CD, but then you get twelve free. That averages to way less than $2 an album - which is basically what you pay on Sketchy Russian Download Site. So how does BMG pay the royalties? With the "handling" part of of shipping fees? By overcharging for the $20 CD? I know BMG is legit, but I wonder how they do it.