[access-uk] Re: AllofMP3 and credit card payments
- From: "Iain Lackie" <ilackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:14:20 +0100
One of the problems I have found is that with legitimate download sites the
record companies are extremely slow to act when something goes wrong such as a
file being corrupted or wrongly labelled. Indeed with one such site, the person
I was dealing with got so fed up with the unwillingness of the record company
to act that he bought the CD and put the uncorrupted tracks on the site
himself. I bought Kate Bush's The Red Shoes from 7Digital only to find that two
of the tracks were in effect missing. This was months ago and I am still
waiting for the album to appear on the site properly. Certainly my money was
refunded but the record companies cannot blame people for going elsewhere when
they treat us customers in such a cavalier manner as if we are only cattle to
be milked.
The good news is that not all record companies are as bad. The Chandos site I
have found to be particularly good at responding to customer problems when they
occur.
Iain
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray's Home
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:48 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: AllofMP3 and credit card payments
Well, whether I'm seen as sad, unadventurous or whatever, I've never indulged
myself in free download music or the likes of what's being talked about here.
For what it's worth the music I tend to listen to and buy - a lot of it
locally produced and performed - I'd rather pay for. I'm not so concerned
about the plight of the conglomerates who control much of the record industry
now, who've done no one any favours, to put it mildy, in the past.
Anyway, Here's one blokes view of the Russian provider of such bounty.
For those in Birmingham and the West midlands, this was taken from Adrian
Goldberg's Stirrer blogg at:
http://thestirrer.blogspot.com
The Stirrer
news that matters, campaigns that count
for Birmingham, the Black Country and beyond
FROM SURFER TO PIRATE
25-09-2006
Edward Cameron on the Russian music download site that allows you to
rip-off major
artists with their new releases. Are they millionaires who won't miss a
few quid?
Or should you take the moral high ground and cough up the full cost?
Get out more? With albums for less than a quid why not stay in?
In my frustration at not being able to find a particular classic album on
CD or
on iTunes, I scoured the net for a downloadable version.
To my joy and amazement I found a music download website claiming to be
legit and
offering albums at around $0.88.
The site, musicmp3.ru is a Russian site where you credit your account with
at least
$20 to be allowed to download mp3s, songs playable even on Apple's notoriously
incompatible iPod.
For those concerned about the wrath of EMI or Sony falling on them the site
claims
to be fully licensed.
But surely there must be a catch. Well, in the interests of investigative
journalism
and fresh from my victory against PayPal, I input my Mastercard number and got
clicking.
Within two hours I had downloaded the Best of Bowie, the new Bob Dylan
album, the
Fratellis, Paolo Nutini, the Guillemots, Orson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Iron
Maiden's latest. Don't judge my music tastes, just keep reading.
Doing a bit of research through technology blogs I found the catch I was
looking
for. With the site being based in Russia I was expecting my card to be
debited
with several thousand pounds followed by a call from HSBC's Indian call
centre.
No, nothing so far. And I did not awake this morning to find a new Russian
wife
sitting on my doorstep expecting her visa all filled in and a job.
So what was it? Well it turns out that this is pretty much just as immoral
as the
old peer-to-peer music swaps spawned from Napster about six years ago when
this
whole mp3 thing started.
What you pay for is the downloaded file, irrelevant of the actual tune.
It's cheap
because the customer pays per megabyte rather than for the licence and
royalties
of the songs.
Sadly it means the artist makes absolutely nothing and by paying for it I've
essentially funded piracy. But until the Russian government catches up and
fights
against this little loophole there's absolutely nothing anybody can do.
What we're dealing with here is the effect of the internet on artists all
over
again. Unfortunately the record companies got so greedy in the late 1990s
that
once we realised there was an alternative to paying £13.99 for a CD they
panicked.
Instead of embracing the opportunities for the future of music offered by
Napster
and its offspring, instead of buying the technology from its creators, the
fat-cats
tried to suppress it. But technology marches on, and with musicmp3.ru and
its peers
we are seeing the pirates' latest attempts to not just make music cheaper,
but
to cash in as well.
So where do you stand? Will you still pay 79p per song or will you fund the
cheats?
I for one won't be going back to this site. iTunes is still pretty good
value while
buying a CD from play.com or other sites is significantly cheaper than it
used to
be. But like the hypocrite journo I am I certainly won't be wasting my $20 by
deleting
my new tunes. And no, you can't have a copy.
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