This is a bit of a weird one. For those that have not come across it, AllOfMP3 is a Russian competitor to music downloading sites like Apple’s iTunes Music Store. It distinguishes itself by offering higher quality (good), in a number of different formats (good), without digital restrictions managements (also good) and for a much lower cost.

(DRM is the bit in iTunes that stops you burning your purchases more than five times or streaming to more than five computers.)

How do they do this? The UK and US music publishing companies allege that it is illegal. AllOfMP3 contend that they comply with all Russian laws (and the local authorities seem to agree).

The BPI is taking it to court to find out:

UK music biz wins right to sue AllofMP3 here | Reg Hardware

My take is that it probably is illegal. Anything that is too good to be true generally is. However I suspect most people are not naive enough to think it is 100% legit. So, given that it’s illegal, why are people willing to pay for the service if they can get the same songs from your common-or-garden P2P network?

It has to be convenience.

In the UK AllOfMP3 is the second most popular download service after iTunes. They are clearly doing something right and maybe record companies should be trying to find what the secret sauce is rather than trying to shut them down. Is it not in their favour for more people to buy more songs?