Topic: allofmp3.com

[ober]

Awesome site if you guys haven't found it yet.  It's a russian site, so I assume that's how they get away with selling songs for so cheap.  You basically deposit some money in your account and then just start downloading songs... I've gotten entire albums for less than $2!!  Songs normally run between 7 and 15 cents!  A guy at work told me about it and I'm really hooked.  

The best part about it is that once you pick your songs, you get to pick the format and the bitrate at which they'll be encoded... and then they literally encode them on the server before placing them in your "downloads" section of your account.  Normally the encoding process is very quick (less than 20-30 seconds in most cases, unless the server is overloaded and that only happened to me once).  They have various formats... wav, ogg, mp3 and a few others.  The price also changes slightly depending on what options you pick... the prices I quoted are for mp3s at 192kbps.

What's also cool is that they have their own explorer program that downloads the latest catalog so you can browse the selection offline.  Then if you want to preview a song, it taps into the net to grab the preview(which is actually the full song... only at a crappy bitrate).

Check it out... I think you'll love it.

[A Bit of Fruit]

sounds cool but i still prefer paying $0 for my albums

[ober]

that's cuz you're a cheap bitch.

[A Bit of Fruit]

got that right

[Rob]

..... cos I know I'd be happy to work for nothing, right?

[A Bit of Fruit]

being a musician isnt a real job anyway

[Rob]

LOL!

Farticus is my Dad!

[jkim]

aw, did wobby have some crushed dreams?

[Rob]

De nada.

Just trying to point out the irony....

[Govtcheez]

..... cos I know I'd be happy to work for nothing, right?

The current way of selling albums is just an outdated business model.  Artists make most of their money from shows, anyway.

[Rob]

Oh, I agree that Sony, WB et al have much to answer for in terms of not responding to the movement of their market into new exciting distribution methods. My heart doesn't bleed for them at all.

My point was simple though. If I do my job I expect to be paid. Same applies to songwriters, software authors, bookwriters etc etc. There is simply no excuse for piracy.

>> Artists make most of their money from shows, anyway.

Linky?

(Or did you perhaps mean that some artists make most of their money from shows, anyway.)

[Govtcheez]

Oh, I don't know.  I didn't put any thought into that reply, it was just parroted from the arguments I've seen.  I do remember seeing tables that break up how money is made, and something like 3 cents per CD goes to the artist.

I pirate music because it's a good way to check out new bands without having to gamble $15 on whether or not I'll like the CD.  It's not some noble swipe at record companies; I do it because I have limited funds and I like music.

(I usually buy CDs if I like the albums enough, though.  About half my CDs were downloaded before I bought them)

[Rob]

>>I do it because I have limited funds and I like music.

...and I'd be the biggest hypocrite ever if I said that I never borrowed a CD from the library and made a quick copy. Like you, I do tend to buy the stuff I like though.

You may want to check out mechanical royalty on google though. It's the only way songwriters (rather than bands) get any money out of their hard work. It's them I really feel sorry for. *shrugs*

[Govtcheez]

Yeah, I guess I never really think about that, since the songwriters and bands are so frequently the same people.  I'll check that out, though.

I'd be happy as a clam if there was a risk-free way for me to buy music, with most of the money going to the band and writers instead of execs.

[Rob]

>>happy as a clam