AllofMP3 loses Visa, gives music away for free
10/18/2006 3:41:15 PM, by Nate Anderson
The AllofMP3.com soap opera takes another bizarre twist today with news that the site plans on giving its music away for free and supporting itself through advertising?just as Visa announces its intention to stop processing AllofMP3 payments.
The ad-supported model is exactly the sort of intriguing new initiative that one might announce in one's first-ever press conference, but AllofMP3 said nothing about it. Odd?but the company is still new at this, finally deciding to mount a public defense of its activities after years of attacks from the IFPI and (more recently) the US Trade Representative.
Rory Davenport of Qorvis Communications, who is now handling public relations for AllofMP3, tells Ars that the site's operators have been considering the ad idea for several weeks. The plan would be to offer two services: the current model in which people pay for access to non-DRMed songs, and a second model, where the songs would be free, but would come with DRM that would force consumers to view advertising. All of this would happen within a proprietary player, so burning to CD or syncing to a digital music player are both out of the question.
That plan looked a lot more important yesterday after the International Herald Tribune reported that Visa had finally pulled the plug on AllofMP3 and would not process any more payments from the site. Davenport was unable to confirm to Ars that this had in fact happened.
If true, it could be a death blow to the site. While the ad-supported model might attract some users, most are unlikely to be swayed by DRMed music that can't be moved to an iPod.
The timing of the move was interesting; AllofMP3 has been in business for years, but only had their credit card processing revoked the day that they held their first press conference. Neither Visa nor the IFPI responded to our inquiries by press time, but one certainly wonders whether the IFPI, with no luck petitioning the Russian government, finally found another way to create problems for AllofMP3.
The site still claims to accept credit cards, but we'll see how long this message lasts.
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