[access-uk] Re: AllofMP3 and credit card payments
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:48:45 +0100
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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