Friday, March 31, 2006
AllofMP3 to Apple: Take THAT!
Posted by Damion Chaplin in "CONTENT" @ 01:11 PM
"Allofmp3.com, the apparently-legal-under-Russian-law yet-not-quite-legitimate-anywhere music download site, has moved a tiny step closer to becoming a full-featured competitor for iTMS with the development of its allTunes software. Although still in beta form, allTunes (the name of which, I'm sure, bears only a coincidental resemblance to iTunes) allows users to scan the Allofmp3.com database, download and purchase songs, and play them. Sound familiar? For those who haven't heard much about it, Allofmp3.com is a Russian site offering music downloads for much lower prices and optionally higher quality than are available elsewhere. A song downloaded from Allofmp3.com might cost 9¢ for a bit rate of 192Kb/s, with a price of US$1.50 for the whole album. In comparison, iTMS would cost 99¢ at lower-quality 128Kb/s, and the whole album would be priced at US$9.99."
I had a friend who jumped on the AllofMP3 wagon when it was first introduced. When he told me about it, I remember thinking "That sure won't last." Well, thus far they've managed to dodge the litigation beast, mostly due to their location. At the risk of being proven wrong again, I have to think that their release of software that directly competes with iTunes will only draw attention to them again and will just cause Apple to sight their guns on them... What do you think? Brilliant strategy or brilliant blunder?
I had a friend who jumped on the AllofMP3 wagon when it was first introduced. When he told me about it, I remember thinking "That sure won't last." Well, thus far they've managed to dodge the litigation beast, mostly due to their location. At the risk of being proven wrong again, I have to think that their release of software that directly competes with iTunes will only draw attention to them again and will just cause Apple to sight their guns on them... What do you think? Brilliant strategy or brilliant blunder?
