February 18, 2007
Jumping on the bandwagon
This looks interesting - iTunes music library backup to Amazon S3. I'm curious to know how it works, and I'd already like to see it extended to backup my Aperture library too.
The website is pretty sparse, so it's not clear how this will be charged. A price for the software? A monthly subscription? A markup on S3 transfer costs? According to macdevcenter, it'll be $69 a year ... I guess they are hoping the majority of users don't have much music to back up. My collection is 35gb and rising daily thanks to allofmp3.com, so I'm curious to see how the economics work for them.
In an interesting attempt to generate buzz they are giving out free accounts to bloggers. Heck, I'll cheerfully give them a free plug in return for securing my music collection for a year. Though I can't help thinking this would be more effective if they had more content on their site for people to read...
Posted by savs at February 18, 2007 1:47 AMHow does AllofMP3 work? I noticed they had the new Damon Albarn thing on there for $1.88 - too good to be true, surely?
Posted by: Dave at February 18, 2007 9:36 AMallofmp3 is something of a grey area - it's not clear whether or not they are selling tracks illegally. They say they pay the correct dues to the Russian collection agencies, but all the European and US collection agencies are up in arms saying they don't pay enough.
Whilst it's not clear it's legal, the BPI have said they won't pursue UK users of the site ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5140788.stm ) and it's certainly more legal than downloading music through p2p networks.
And, more importantly, buying from allofmp3 sends a clear message to the industry that they must stop gouging customers. People _WILL_ buy music if it is reasonably-priced and DRM-free.
Posted by: Andrew Savory at February 18, 2007 12:37 PMWould love your feedback on pricing. We are soliciting comments from the community.
Posted by: Terence Pua at February 20, 2007 7:45 AM