Music downloads, how legal is legal enough?

C_Ronaldo

i agree with yeslek, until the prices are dropped ill continue to use allofmp3, even buying a cd from the high street/internet is still expensive, plus the fact i havent got money to burn like other people,

nicolec_2

I recently tried to use allofmp3, and you can't use credit card payments any more. has anyone got any advise as to how to put money on your account?
thanks

axean

nicolec wrote:

I recently tried to use allofmp3, and you can't use credit card payments any more. has anyone got any advise as to how to put money on your account?
thanks

This site may be legal, but the record industry is doing all it can to bring it to an end. They have managed to "persuade" the major credit/debit card companies not to supply allofmp3 with a service.
This means you have to pay through the other method of "over the counter" top-ups. It does work, and is much easier than it sounds

Log into your allofmp3 account. Click on "balance" at the top right hand corner.
Click on the blue "refill balance" box.
One of the options is pay using Xrost card. That is now the easiest way to pay.
Clicking on this options will show you two boxes to fill in with your xrost card details.....So you need to have bought an Xrost card/token first!

Goto the Xrost site and register an account.
https://www.xrost.biz/
You will see you can buy various values of card via different companies. In the UK the easiest way is to buy a voucher from Ukash or Paysafe card.
http://www.ukash.com/gb-en/ukash/how-ukash-works/how-to-get-ukash
http://www.paysafecard.com/uk/

Ukash and paysafecard are both bough at paypoints, wich are basically most newsagents.
The best value to buy is £10, for conversion purposes.

So......
Go to a newsagents showing a paypoint sign (most of them)
Ask to buy a Ukash or Paysafecard to the value of £10
You will be given a print out with a long number.
Go to the xrost sight an log in.
Buy a $15 xrost card using your ukash or paysafcard number.
Xrost will give you pin codea and claim ID for the $15 amount.
Goto the allofmp3 site, log in, go to balance, refill, then xrost option
enter you xrost pin and claim ID.
Job done.:beer:

You'll be credited with the $15 + a 20% bonus. So you'll have $18 to spend.
You'll only have to buy about 13 tracks to get your money back compared to Itunes. You'll have enough credit to buy 160 tracks.
It sounds complicated buy is much easer in practice.

**IMPORTANT** Six months ago I said the following

Legality? Just like the UK, Russia has one of the best Legal Industries and Governments money can buy. Everything I have read over the last few years state it is legal. But I wouldn't be surprised if the global media industry successfully lobby the Russians authorities, and some way is found to remove the company.

Well my prediction looks like it could be coming true, the RIAA cant stop the company through legal action......because its legal! Under Russian Law, allofmp3 are obliged to pay a 15% of profits straight to the artist (missing out the record company). Under Russian laws music downloads are considered to come under "performance" for licensing laws. This means the record companies gets left out since they are not involved in the performance. They only have to pay the artist. This is said to be reasonable by many independent experts ......but since the label or record company is cut out of the deal, there's a big problem. Remember artists only get about 3/4p of an "official" download. Most goes to the record company.

First off the RIAA (which represents labels/record companies), advised members not to take the 15% royalty fees for artists from the company. Which is fair enough because they would be validating the company. This is also why record companies say they receive nothing from allofmp3...they don't take the money.
They are now making it difficult to use, by forcing credit/debit card companies to make a choice between supplying services to its members or allofmp3. Credit Card Companies have chosen to bow down to the RIAA and stop providing services to Allofmp3. Ironically Allofmp3 are saying they are planning to take legal actions against these credit/debit card companies.

More importantly the RIAA has persuaded the USA to make stopping Allofmp3 a condition of Russia gaining WTO membership.
Russia must change its laws by June to make allofmp3's current service illegal. Ironically this is further proof the site is currently legal.

This means the current service could stop operating around May. Will it then start operating out of another country? (Iran?/North Korea?)

So you dont keep a huge amount of credit on the site
Not much of a problem, if you buy a $15 dollar voucher, you only have to download 12 songs to be in profit compared to itunes (but with enough credit left to download another 160 songs). And unlike Itunes these songs can be CD "quality" and DRM free.:T

Some links concerning the current state of play.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allofmp3#Legality_in_the_UK
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/18/allofmp3_defends_business_model/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/29/us_gov_allofmp3/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/02/theres_a_noose/

dccarm

I topped up my account with my mastercard yesterday. Happy days!