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Which one is the best? Online music providers like napter, itunes..

M

Mer

Senior member
I'm looking to buy songs online in mp3 format.

Which sites have the best selection in your opinion?

I listen to mainly top 100 type stuff... stuff that's played in the clubs... nothing too unique 🙂

I see with Itunes you have to download their interface... does napster also have an interface?

Just looking for some opinions/thoughts from people that already buy music from such sites.

I do intend to burn my songs to cd's, copy them to my mp3 player, and play them on different PC's. (work PC, home PC and personal laptop)

Sweentess,
Mer.

** UPDATE **

Thank you everyone for the info.
I think I might try the allofmp3 site... and I also like the intunes site... they have almost everything I searched for.

Thanks everyone again!!
Especially those that directed their info directly to me... just another reason why I love these forums... the wealth of knowledge!!

----
 
I don't think allofmp3.com is legal, is it? At any rate I'd advise against buying mp3s online; you pay the same or close to the same amount for far less data than when you buy a cd. mp3 and ogg shrink the data so much by 'throwing out' much of it during the encoding process. The quality loss is slight but noticeable. You may shrug it off, but if you ever get a quality sound system and/or headphones it'll be more noticeable. Further, even the best mp3s sound, in my opinion and that of most others, inferior to ogg at the same or even lower bitrate. Buying the CDs allows you to encode to ogg rather than mp3, obviously. If an online store carried flac, that'd be different - flac is a lossless codec.
 
None of the major online stores sell music in MP3 format I believe. They all use a secure format that prevents you from doing much with the song. If you want to use one of the majors, your best bet is using iTunes where you can burn the song onto a CD, then rerip it back as an MP3 or whatever.

Or, as the above poster said, use allofmp3.com.
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
I don't think allofmp3.com is legal, is it? At any rate I'd advise against buying mp3s online; you pay the same or close to the same amount for far less data than when you buy a cd. mp3 and ogg shrink the data so much by 'throwing out' much of it during the encoding process. The quality loss is slight but noticeable. You may shrug it off, but if you ever get a quality sound system and/or headphones it'll be more noticeable. Further, even the best mp3s sound, in my opinion and that of most others, inferior to ogg at the same or even lower bitrate. Buying the CDs allows you to encode to ogg rather than mp3, obviously. If an online store carried flac, that'd be different - flac is a lossless codec.
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Doesn't AllOfMP3 carry FLAC?

Anyhow, if you can tell the difference between 320 VBR HQ MP3 and a CD ... power to ya. 😛

- M4H
 
AllofMp3 has lossless format for more. I just uyse mp3 192k or WMA 160 or 192k. Cant beat $0.05/song for that quality.
 
Is that site endorsed by the RIAA? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not but that they can't touch them because they're not in the US. Funny that people support paying for music - but not paying the right people 😉 If I'm wrong, then apologies in advance, but I don't think I am; Why are other sites charging 49-99 cents a song, and why would the RIAA be ok with getting 5% of their usual price?
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Is that site endorsed by the RIAA? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not but that they can't touch them because they're not in the US. Funny that people support paying for music - but not paying the right people 😉 If I'm wrong, then apologies in advance, but I don't think I am; Why are other sites charging 49-99 cents a song, and why would the RIAA be ok with getting 5% of their usual price?
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it's a Russian site with no affiliation with the RIAA. that said no one has been able to prove that you are actually violating any copyright rules when you purchase from them...however i can't imagine that you're not 🙂
 
Why would they be suppored by the RIAA? That's an American organization, allofmp3 is Russian and is, as far as anyone can tell, in full compliance with copyright laws there. Thus, it's legal.

Now there has been arguments as to whether or not it is legal for Americans to use it, but the best logic I could find was that it is a legal importation of a product, and therefore is legal.

For now anyways.
 
Originally posted by: PinwiZ
Why would they be suppored by the RIAA? That's an American organization, allofmp3 is Russian and is, as far as anyone can tell, in full compliance with copyright laws there. Thus, it's legal.

Now there has been arguments as to whether or not it is legal for Americans to use it, but the best logic I could find was that it is a legal importation of a product, and therefore is legal.

For now anyways.
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That's a ridiculous argument. The reasoning behind copyright laws is that the RIAA should get money for the product they're selling, and the artist their (usually very small) share as well. If pirating is not ok, why is it ok to pay a pirate for something? Legal and "right" are often two very different things. I'm not getting on anyone's back about pirating, just commenting on the hypocrisy of supporting paying for music and then paying a pirate rather than the rightful recipient.
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: PinwiZ
Why would they be suppored by the RIAA? That's an American organization, allofmp3 is Russian and is, as far as anyone can tell, in full compliance with copyright laws there. Thus, it's legal.

Now there has been arguments as to whether or not it is legal for Americans to use it, but the best logic I could find was that it is a legal importation of a product, and therefore is legal.

For now anyways.
Click to expand...

That's a ridiculous argument. The reasoning behind copyright laws is that the RIAA should get money for the product they're selling, and the artist their (usually very small) share as well. If pirating is not ok, why is it ok to pay a pirate for something? Legal and "right" are often two very different things. I'm not getting on anyone's back about pirating, just commenting on the hypocrisy of supporting paying for music and then paying a pirate rather than the rightful recipient.
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The artist are being paid through ROM.
 
Originally posted by: fredtam
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: PinwiZ
Why would they be suppored by the RIAA? That's an American organization, allofmp3 is Russian and is, as far as anyone can tell, in full compliance with copyright laws there. Thus, it's legal.

Now there has been arguments as to whether or not it is legal for Americans to use it, but the best logic I could find was that it is a legal importation of a product, and therefore is legal.

For now anyways.
Click to expand...

That's a ridiculous argument. The reasoning behind copyright laws is that the RIAA should get money for the product they're selling, and the artist their (usually very small) share as well. If pirating is not ok, why is it ok to pay a pirate for something? Legal and "right" are often two very different things. I'm not getting on anyone's back about pirating, just commenting on the hypocrisy of supporting paying for music and then paying a pirate rather than the rightful recipient.
Click to expand...

The artist are being paid through ROM.


Do you consider buying drugs from Canada "pirating"?
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The Russian site might be legal in Russia but almost certainly isn't in the US. They probably just haven't annoyed the RIAA enough yet to be worth challenging them in the Russian "justice" system. They certainly aren't paying royalties, they just claim to have some blanket fixed fee they might be paying.

To Mer:

No one sells legal MP3s of major artists, the tracks are either protected AAC (iTunes), protected RA (RealEvil) or protected WMA (everyone else). It's all 0.79 - 0.99 a song, which makes sense if you like pop artists with "one good song" syndrome.

Rhapsody (RealNetworks) and Napster both also let you pay $10/month for unlimited PC playback for most of the CDs they offer.

I have Napster right now, and the 128 kbps WMA doesn't sound as good as the lossless FLAC I use for ripping my own CDs, but it is a couple of steps above radio quality. For the $10/month you can use it on at least 2 PCs (might be more, I forget), so you can use it on a work PC too. You can download CDs for the PC playback so there are no skips or stops from network glitches. The $10/month does not let you burn or copy to a portable, for that you pay the usual $1/song.

I use Napster both to preview CDs before buying, and to listen to CDs or single songs I like enough to hear but not enough to buy. If I really like something, I buy a real CD and rip it to FLAC.

The main problem with Napster is that so far they've only offered about 50% of the CDs I've searched for, plus another 17% that are purchase-only (no listening on the PC), with 33% missing completely.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The Russian site might be legal in Russia but almost certainly isn't in the US. They probably just haven't annoyed the RIAA enough yet to be worth challenging them in the Russian "justice" system. They certainly aren't paying royalties, they just claim to have some blanket fixed fee they might be paying.

To Mer:

No one sells legal MP3s of major artists, the tracks are either protected AAC (iTunes), protected RA (RealEvil) or protected WMA (everyone else). It's all 0.79 - 0.99 a song, which makes sense if you like pop artists with "one good song" syndrome.

Rhapsody (RealNetworks) and Napster both also let you pay $10/month for unlimited PC playback for most of the CDs they offer.

I have Napster right now, and the 128 kbps WMA doesn't sound as good as the lossless FLAC I use for ripping my own CDs, but it is a couple of steps above radio quality. For the $10/month you can use it on at least 2 PCs (might be more, I forget), so you can use it on a work PC too. You can download CDs for the PC playback so there are no skips or stops from network glitches. The $10/month does not let you burn or copy to a portable, for that you pay the usual $1/song.

I use Napster both to preview CDs before buying, and to listen to CDs or single songs I like enough to hear but not enough to buy. If I really like something, I buy a real CD and rip it to FLAC.

The main problem with Napster is that so far they've only offered about 50% of the CDs I've searched for, plus another 17% that are purchase-only (no listening on the PC), with 33% missing completely.
Click to expand...



It is legal until it is illegal and right now it is legal. Under Russian law they are distributing the music legally meaning they are licensed to do so. US law says you can acquire music through anyone licensed to distribute it. Is it a loophole? Yes. Is it "illegal"? No.
 
Originally posted by: fredtam
It is legal until it is illegal and right now it is legal. Under Russian law they are distributing the music legally meaning they are licensed to do so. US law says you can acquire music through anyone licensed to distribute it. Is it a loophole? Yes. Is it "illegal"? No.
Click to expand...

Still hypocritical of the users who do it to "do the right thing" and pay for music... And what other users would there be? P2P is free...
 
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: fredtam
It is legal until it is illegal and right now it is legal. Under Russian law they are distributing the music legally meaning they are licensed to do so. US law says you can acquire music through anyone licensed to distribute it. Is it a loophole? Yes. Is it "illegal"? No.
Click to expand...

Still hypocritical of the users who do it to "do the right thing" and pay for music... And what other users would there be? P2P is free...
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone really does it to be doing the "right thing". They do it to cover their @ss and get the music in the format they want without being gouged (paying for inferior formats). I use it because right now it is legal and it is the cheapest out there among pay sites.
 
People don't do it to hurt artists, they do it because the US record labels do not offer them what they want. They don't want to pay $15 for a CD, and they don't want to be restricted in how they can use a file they've purchased. When I buy something, I feel it is mine to do what I want with, and when it comes to music that could be playing it on my computer, putting it on a CD in my cars MP3 player, or on a portable device.

For that reason alone, I'm not going to use Napter, iTunes, or anything else. The artists themselves receive money from allofmp3 just as they do from itunes or whatever, the biggest difference is that the labels aren't getting their cut, and that's fine by me.
 
Originally posted by: PinwiZ
For that reason alone, I'm not going to use Napter, iTunes, or anything else. The artists themselves receive money from allofmp3 just as they do from itunes or whatever, the biggest difference is that the labels aren't getting their cut, and that's fine by me.
Click to expand...
What makes you think this? The site claims to be paying some fixed license fee, which even if true is so small that the artists are not getting anything.

Buy from them instead of using P2P if you think it will protect you from the RIAA, but don't tell yourself that any money is going to the artists, it's not.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Originally posted by: PinwiZ
For that reason alone, I'm not going to use Napter, iTunes, or anything else. The artists themselves receive money from allofmp3 just as they do from itunes or whatever, the biggest difference is that the labels aren't getting their cut, and that's fine by me.
Click to expand...
What makes you think this? The site claims to be paying some fixed license fee, which even if true is so small that the artists are not getting anything.

Buy from them instead of using P2P if you think it will protect you from the RIAA, but don't tell yourself that any money is going to the artists, it's not.
Click to expand...


"The legal status of Allofmp3

Russian copyright legislation allows phonograms to be performed publicly without the authorization of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable transmission. (Article 39) The Internet could be deemed to fall under this exemption. The copyrights involved have to be paid to a collecting society.

Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS). According to license ? ??-??-02-36 the Internet-project www.allofmp3.com, has the right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And Related Rights Law.

ROMS is a member of CISAC (www.cisac.org) - the International confederation of authors and composers societies. ROMS manages intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to artists. Both Russian and foreign.

We have received this confirmation from ROMS:

* I can confirm the legality of allofmp3.com You can legally buy/download mp3-songs from this site if it does not breaks the law the national legislation of the country in which you will be during that moment Sorry for my english.
Yours faithfully, the assistant to the lawyer of the Russian society on multimedia and to digital networks (ROMS) www.roms.ru,

Bahanets Roman Igorevich "

http://www.museekster.com/allo...Is%20Allofmp3%20legal?
 
So allofmp3 is claiming to be a radio station "broadcasting" MP3s to your computer. That reads like the "you don't need to pay income tax" fraud sites.

OK, so perhaps you're paying radio station listener fees and for every 1,000 song downloads the artist gets $1. Assuming ROMS is really being paid and isn't itself just pocketing the money.

For all we know ROMS has 1 employee and exists only to make allofmp3 seem legit.

It's easy to post any claim you want on a website, including that magnet rings will make you immortal, and it's almost as easy to set up an organization or professional society.

 
Well people are at least posting facts, you are just insisting that it is all false. Where is your evidence to show that they DON'T pay, and that the site IS illegal?

Just because a site isn't in America doesn't make it shady or illegal.
 
The Music Industry claims that Allofmp3 is illegal. Their opinion is that recorded music has three sets of rights. The songwriter has the copyright to the song, the artist his own rights in it, and the record label and producers a third set. Allofmp3 is paying the songwriters, via the collection agency ROMS, but they are acting without the permission of the other copyright holders.

Alan Dixon, general counsel of the IFPI explains their position in an article on Guardian.co.uk

We have asked Andy Mincov, a Russian lawyer, to comment on Alan Dixon's statement. This is what he replied:

"As for the comment on Alan Dixon, I'm not sure what he meant my a Copyright Code during the Soviet era, because there has not been any such document".

The Music Industry has not taken any legal action against Allofmp3 or ROMS. IFPI Russia's legal adviser, Vladimir Dragunov, has admitted that legal actions don't have much chance of succeeding.

In the User Agreement Allofmp3 states that you may not use the service if it is in conflict with the legislation of your country. Of course Allofmp3 has added this as a kind of disclaimer.
Click to expand...

Source (first thing a search turned up)
 
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