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A Russian company labelled by the music industry as as an "unlawful" operation was nonetheless second only to iTunes as the favoured destination of UK digital music buyers during April 2006, figures from UK-based market watcher XTN Data reveal.According to XTN, Apple's iTunes Music Store accounted for 44 per cent of music download purchases in the UK last month. AllofMP3.com came in second, with a 14 per cent market share. That puts it ahead of Napster (eight per cent), Wippit (six per cent) and MSN (six per cent) among the nation's top-five digital music suppliers.
Considering the entertainment industry’s position against AllofMp3.com, many fans of this service feared the worst when the site was unavailable for a second day. Instead of the typical homepage, visitors were greeted with the following message:“Attention” “We are sorry but the server is closed for maintenance”However this is not the result of a civil complaint from the IFPI, nor does it appear to be anything other than a legitimate server issue. Russian authorities had ordered the seizure of some of the site’s servers a couple of weeks ago, but it switched to new servers and the service carried on.Although there's an ongoing case against AllofMp3.com, the service appears safe for now.
The Russian download site Allofmp3.com has gotten a lot of press lately: First it went offline for a couple of days, leading to speculations of a shutdown. Just a few days after Allofmp3 returned from the dead, which was answered by the music industry by announing further legal proceedings. Even the New York Times reported recently about Allofmp3, carefully describing the site as "possibly illegal".Of course every mention of Allofmp3.com in the press is driving more customers to the site. So why would the music industry help Allofmp3 with their advertising? Because the Russian website will have to shut down this fall, and IFPI is just waiting to claim this as their victory.Allofmp3.com is well aware of that and already announced to change their business model by then. This will most likely result in a completely different and much smaller catalogue. Most of the western artists that make Allofmp3.com so alluring now will be missing in less than three months.Just think about it: An enemy that will have to give up in less than 90 days. A victory that will fall right into your lap. A little bit of drama during summertime. A good way to show shareholders you're winning the war against piracy. That's really almost too good to be true.
The UK recording industry is urging the foreign secretary to raise the issue of Russian bargain music download website allofmp3.com at the G8 summit. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group wants Margaret Beckett to discuss the site with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. The BPI is suing the website, claiming it is breaking UK law by selling music there without the necessary licence. Allofmp3.com says it operates "in full compliance with all Russian laws".
