Music cheap from AllOfMP3.com

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

When I marvelled at the iTunes Music Store about two years ago,

tsk1979 said he preferred AllOfMP3. I finally got down to checking out the service today, and I'm suitably impressed.

iTMS charges $0.99 (Rs 43) per track. In contrast, AllOfMP3 charges $0.02 (90p) per megabyte. Given 4 megabytes for the average MP3 track, that's less than a tenth of what iTMS charges.

The way it works is, you select the tracks you want, then you select what format you want them in and at what quality. AllOfMP3 then does a live conversion from it's source data, charges on the basis of the resulting file size, and puts the file in your download queue, from where you can pick it up using a standard browser or download accelerator. It remains available for the next two weeks. I did have some trouble with their servers being overloaded, but a few refreshes later it was downloading comfortably.

Bonus: Because of “limitations” in Russian copyright law, AllOfMP3 is able to sell you music legally no matter where in the world you are, and DRM-free too, unlike iTMS which only works in parts of North America and Europe.

fus — Aug 23, 2005 3:23:31 AM — # ↩

I use mp3search.ru
10 cents per song, albums are around $1.5
too sleepy to calculate v/s the MB funda
tsk1979 — Aug 23, 2005 12:32:52 PM — # ↩

Make sure you use only paypal for payment and not your credit card.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 23, 2005 3:38:37 PM — # ↩
  
  PayPal stopped accepting my credit card last year and refuses to explain. Besides, AllOfMP3 says their PayPal link is down temporarily.
  
  Let's hope they don't mess with my card. :-)
  - ravi — Apr 10, 2006 7:57:58 AM — # ↩
    
    So did they mess with your card? Do you still use them? I'm wondering what your take on them is ...
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 10, 2006 8:08:30 AM — # ↩
      
      AllOfMP3 is cool. No fraud, and the balance I left in my account all these months is still there. Just bought a Durutti Column album. These days they have 192 kbps quality files of nearly everything, so you don't even have to wait while it is encoded.
      
      (The standard process is that all their data is stored raw -- you select what quality you want, it's encoded at that rate, and you pay by file size.)
      - ravi — Apr 10, 2006 8:24:03 AM — # ↩
        
        That's bloody awesome. I have $50 credit fraud liability so even if allofmp3 decided to re-sell my credit card info to whoever and bill $10,000 on it, I'd still pay only $50. It's a pain in the ass to do the paperwork, but yeah, I'm safe. So I went ahead and just bought up Daddy Yankee's album Barrio Fino. :-)
        
        Thanks for the note. Also noticed you've recently started screening anonymous comments, hah.
        
        Kiran Jonnalagadda — Apr 10, 2006 8:30:08 AM — # ↩
        
        Have been screening anonymous for close to a year -- guessed that the abuse spewers were aiming to make a spectacle of their turd before I could respond and that screening them would kill their incentive completely (since the message was always for readers, not me). It worked!
        
        ravi — Apr 10, 2006 9:00:35 AM — # ↩
        
        Dude, check out Gasolina.
achitnis — Aug 23, 2005 12:42:55 PM — # ↩

How safe are these guys from the credit card perspective? This is a Russian outfit, so isn't that a bit of a risk? They could sell all the credit card numbers they have on file and there would be nothing anyone could do, since they are outside any form of financial regulation!
deepix — Aug 23, 2005 1:22:24 PM — # ↩

Because of “limitations” in Russian copyright law, AllOfMP3 is able to sell you music legally no matter where in the world you are, and DRM-free too, unlike iTMS which only works in parts of North America and Europe.
Legal, yes, but how ethical is that?
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 23, 2005 3:37:21 PM — # ↩
  
  How ethical is it for someone to decide you can play music on your computer, but not on your other computer sitting next to this one?
  - fus — Aug 23, 2005 4:45:56 PM — # ↩
    
    touche
  - achitnis — Aug 25, 2005 12:46:56 AM — # ↩
    
    Good point :)
pavismaya — Aug 29, 2005 7:17:44 AM — # ↩

KIRAN ON FIRST PAGE IN TIMES OF INDIA
Yay ...kiran, u are finally "wanted", that too on first page of TIMES OF INDIA BANGALORE

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1212792.cms

Yay once again.....

You are now FAMOUS !! hehe.
- frozenaftermath — Aug 29, 2005 1:18:22 PM — # ↩
  
  Re: KIRAN ON FIRST PAGE IN TIMES OF INDIA
  It is the pg1 anchor in the Delhi edition and written around a pathetic peg.
  - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 29, 2005 2:21:34 PM — # ↩
    
    Re: KIRAN ON FIRST PAGE IN TIMES OF INDIA
    Yes, it's quite curious why both Bangalore and Delhi thought this was anchor news material. Charles tells me the Bombay version (Sunday) was better positioned and not truncated. The Bangalore version ends before it makes a point. I don't yet know what conclusion Charles was driving at.
    - frozenaftermath — Aug 29, 2005 3:16:23 PM — # ↩
      
      Re: KIRAN ON FIRST PAGE IN TIMES OF INDIA
      I found it quite amazing that you can write a story around the fact that there exists all types of people on the net.
      
      Right now it is the rage to come up with 'insights' into blogging and there was already one in I-T that has kicked up quite a bit of dirt.
      
      Positioning is decided by the group of wise men at the respective centers.
      - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 29, 2005 3:27:47 PM — # ↩
        
        Heh, latelyontime and I are coming up with our own insights into blogging, except it's hopefully far more serious work. (It's somewhat funny that Nishant is portrayed as an analyst explaining my behaviour, when we actually work together.) We're not faffing around -- there's serious money in designing community spaces outside the public sphere. I'm interested in how form shapes discussions (was in Delhi last week for this); Nishant studies online-offline integration, especially involving government, as his PhD research. We're both now with a client paying good money to design such spaces.
        
        frozenaftermath — Aug 29, 2005 4:00:04 PM — # ↩
        
        Ack.. should've pinged when you were in town.. would have bought a pint for you gladly.. even though you are not known [sic] to talk much.
        
        There is a goddamn lot of money in giving out gyaan these days (know it only too well now after going through at least one vendor meeting in an average day), only if you can put it all together in one coherent package which the corporates love, you do stand a fair chance then of selling out the firm later for quite decent buck.
        
        The govt. part sounds interesting, will keep an eye out for this.
        
        Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 29, 2005 5:46:27 PM — # ↩
        
        I was very rushed too. Didn't announce on LJ, didn't check LJ, barely read any mail. Ironically, I was there pimping LJ (sort of, see this and this).
        
        Delhi was nice. If I come again—and I hope I do—I'll let you know.
        
        frozenaftermath — Aug 29, 2005 8:27:04 PM — # ↩
        
        Hmmm... I have my reservations about Sarai.. but the work sounds interesting...
        
        I'm working on a set up with which we are aiming to change the way conversations (and who converses too) happen in the mainstream media.
        
        It is a bit far fetched till we actually might be able to launch it in whatever form couple of months down the line.
        
        Last place I tried (indiatimes) it did not happen, not due the concept, but because of resource constraints.
        
        Maybe it will happen this time.
        
        Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 30, 2005 1:53:01 AM — # ↩
        
        Aren't you still at Indiatimes? Or is this TimesOfIndia.com? Or another organisation?
        
        Lots of people have reservations about Sarai, largely valid. The important thing is that they provided me a framework to start exploring my ideas -- which I would have explored anyway, but not leading to a definite form -- and have pointed me to where I could take it to become more serious work. Sarai provided me no feedback and stated no expectations, and that was disconcerting, but for simply providing me a framework that I can see now has helped, I'm thankful to them.
        
        frozenaftermath — Aug 30, 2005 11:15:39 AM — # ↩
        
        Um.. well.. I was with Times Internet, the company that runs Indiatimes, Timesofinda.com etc..etc.. quit in July (like phew!) though and now with a start up telly company.
        
        Frameworkwise the evil empire too was promising, just that things never went from the talking stage to the implementation stage. Beyond a limit I can't stand either theoretical blabber or suitspeak.
        
        The disconnects are everywhere, I hope you can buck the trend though.
        
        Kiran Jonnalagadda — Aug 30, 2005 1:29:18 PM — # ↩
        
        We're learning to fight techno-utopian suit-speak with KISS suit-speak (is that an oxymoron?). It's not funny. Not sure how long we'll last -- burnout is closing. We were up till 5 yesterday making a presentation (slides and large dual-A3 diagram), and today the meeting was cancelled.
        
        It's not funny at all for a geek to have to use suit-ware to tell a wannabe-geek suit that geekery isn't going to sell.
        
        frozenaftermath — Aug 30, 2005 2:12:25 PM — # ↩
        
        From experience I am learning that you should have at least 4 presentations/concept notes before you hit the suits.
        
        pres 1 is pure fantasy, i.e things you'd like to build and the things the chaps would lurvee to have.
        pres 2 is where a bit of reality sneaks in when the first hurdle, timelines, hit you in the face.
        pres 3 is where the commercials come in, half features have by then been stripped off the product.
        pres 4 is where the actual stuff comes in, minus the flowing fantasies, it looks like yet another underbudgeted, half-cooked deal.
        
        shortindiangirl — Sep 1, 2005 1:29:19 PM — # ↩
        
        Now why the F&*$ did Charles not mention that ? The fact that you are studying people like yourself probably invalidates his possible thesis that you were a loser in real life and a hero online...
Anonymous — Aug 31, 2005 10:36:48 PM — # ↩

hi...u r in the paper...times of india delhi edition
vasanth — Oct 31, 2005 7:29:40 PM — # ↩

I think this moved away from the topic ....... but I just chanced upon this yet again as I was looking up the archives. So first congratulations for being in the news !!
More relevantly, allofmp3.com is really good. For most part, with just 10$ it helps me sample ( and sometimes listen ) to the songs on the net. The download quality is also pretty good, isnt it ?

Will visit soon .........

Raman