p2pnet - rss feed: MP3Search.ru
p2pnet.net News Feature:- When we write about music download sites, we’re usually talking about the plastic Big Music cartel-backed and -supported versions whose owners are desperately trying to convince themselves and the world that there really is an existing online corporate music business.
Of course, there isn’t. But you know how it goes.
However, there’s a non-corporate site in Russia that’s getting more and more attention.
It’s called MP3Search.ru and, says Museekster.com’s Hans Handgraaf, it’s even more controversial than Allofmp3, another oft-mentioned Russian download site. By way of example, “MP3Search is able to add albums to their catalogue even before the official release date. Eminem’s latest album Encore was available about a week before the official release.”
Handgraaf had an excellent interview with Sergei Arsentiev, MP3Search.ru’s director, to find out more about MP3Search and the copyright situation in Russia.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Interview with Sergei Arsentiev, director of MP3Search.ru
By Hans Handgraaf - Museekster.com
Hans: The way copyrights work in Russia is very different form the situation in Europe and the U.S. This causes endless discussions on the legality of your service. Can you explain in brief how a service like MP3Search is able to offer all music in accordance with the Russian legislation?
Sergei: I would like to notice that the situation with copyrights in Russia has a strong resemblance to the legislation of Spain for example. According to the Russian legislation, organizations like RAO and ROMS are possible. Such organizations have the right to collect the copyright fees without any preliminary agreements with copyright holders.
Hans: You seem to be able to release albums before the official release date. Does this imply that you obtain your music files from both P2P and the original CDs?
Sergei:The publishers themselves often put albums to the market before the official date of release. We receive many new releases from traders and from insiders. Unfortunately we cannot control the publication of an album depending on the declared date of official release as we take date of official release from public sources, and such information is not quite reliable. At present we are not capable to work with each label individually because it is too laborious yet.
Hans: So the license from ROMS allows you to distribute music now matter how the files were obtained? Do you have to pay royalties for the files obtained by P2P and the unofficial albums (bootlegs) in your catalogue just as for the rest of the music you offer?
Sergei:We pay license royalties for all objects of copyrights without exception, i.e. for all our files: both requiring payment and free.
Hans: Using files from different sources may have consequences for the quality. P2Pfiles are known to have poor quality in some cases. Do you maintain some kind of minimal quality for the songs you release?
Sergei:We try to control the quality of our files as far as possible. Some rare files are of such quality as we managed to find. Popular music are of high quality (from 192 kbps bitrate). Unfortunately it is impossible to listen to all the Gigabytes of music we add daily, therefore we are guided mostly by responses of our users and correct the files whose quality our users consider insufficient.
Hans: There have been a few publications on changes in the copyright laws in Russia. What is the current situation and will these changes have an effect on you service in the near future?
Sergei: An amended legislation will come into force beginning from the 1st of September 2006. It will be obligatory for an organization on collective management of copyrights (RAO, ROMS and others) to conclude agreements with all copyright holders whose works they want to give in the Internet. We have time yet to decide how to win in this situation.
Hans: I have read a publication regarding a disagreement between ROMS and RAO about the licenses. According this article, RAO is planning to license services like MP3Search directly. In their latest press release, ROMS however states that they are working on independent distribution of the copyright fees. What are the latest developments in this matter?
Sergei:Yes, as far as I know RAO and ROMS have totally quarreled. But there is no fundamental difference between these organizations. Both of them are authorized to collect the copyright fees. It is simply a struggle for the control of monetary streams. It is absolutely unimportant for us to what from these two organizations we pay copyright royalties. Unfortunately the copyright holders receive minimum anyway.
Hans: What amounts or percentages should we think of when are talking about the royalties you pay? Do you pay royalties per song or is there some other kind of arrangement with ROMS?
Sergei:We pay 10 % of our full income (not of the net income only). ROMS’s tariffs will increase beginning from the 1st of January 2005. We do not know yet how far they will increase.
Hans: Recently you have changed the pricing from a penny per Mb to $ .10 per song. What was the reason for this change?
Sergei:Many Russian and foreign copyright holders were displeased with such low prices ($0.03 - $0.05 USD) per song, and the price of $0.10 USD satisfies them. Also this change is to make calculations with our clients much more clear and transparent. In fact, bitrate and size of a file are unimportant both to our clients and copyright holders. That is why it is not reasonable to take money for megabytes. Besides that, there are a lot of beginners in the Internet, and they do not understand units of quantity of the information at all.
Hans: Payment by PayPal has been down for quite a while now. Can you tell what causes this? Is there any chance this feature will return in the near future?
Sergei:Unfortunately PayPal company does not recognize, or is afraid to recognize, legality of our activity in Russia. Our lawyers have all necessary documents and have communicated with PayPal company many times but in vain. Moreover PayPal company withholds our users’ payments for summer 2004. However we decided not to cancel these payments and serve our users at our own expense hoping that PayPal company will pay us the money nevertheless. Some Russian websites continue to accept PayPal through "grey" schemes. We prefer to work "white" and continue dialogue with PayPal company as we still have not received from them the concrete reason of refusal in service.
Hans: Odd that a bank can decide on its own whether or not a service is legal. Even more strange, because I have been told that importing music to the U.S. for private use is not illegal when the music is bought from a company or person who is licensed to sell this material. It looks like the RIAA and IFPI have something to do with this boycott. Has your company ever been directly contacted by representatives of these organizations? If so, how did you react?
Sergei:Yes, these companies have great influence in the USA and Europe. Probably this fact accounts for our problems including the problems with PayPal company.
Representatives of IFPI keep sending us angry letters and faxes. We answer and suggest that we should find a solution of the question together. But no subsequent dialogue has ever followed. They think they can prohibit us from selling one or another album but according to the Russian Federation Law we have the right to sell music in the Internet and the law makes no provision for any territorial restriction. Especially as the concept "territory" can hardly be used regarding the Internet.
I would like also to call your attention to the fact that we have applied repeatedly to the record labels (whose music is sold by such websites as iTunes, Rhapsody, MSN Music) for consideration of possibility of our business in the USA according to THEIR law. But apparently they do not want to admit one more competitor to the on-line music market in the USA. It is very unpleasant, especially for American citizens as these websites take too high price per song and cannot offer such big variety of files as we can and forbid their customers to use the purchased files free because they protect the files with DRM technology.
Unfortunately our company do not have enough means to arrange a permanent representation in the USA, staff up and engage solicitors and lawyers. And it is quite inconvenient to apply to the American antimonopoly committee from Russia.
Hans: What are your plans for the near future?
Sergei:We have a lot of unique ideas and promising projects but unfortunately have not enough time. However we hope to present some of them in the near future.
Hans: Thanks very much Sergei for taking time to answer my questions. I am sure your clear answers will be appreciated by many.
===================
See:-
Allofmp3 - Downloads: 1 cent a pop, p2pnet, April 28, 2004
December 21st, 2004 at 6:00 pm
I’m disapointed in mp3search.ru. Big surprise - I cannot get their site to even surface let alone produce a download - I’ve given them 30.00 and I have nothing to show for it - they don’t respond to my email inquiries or anything - got any ideas what I can do?
December 21st, 2004 at 9:33 pm
I have been using them successfully for a few weeks, but now cannot even access their site. Maybe they have been closed down!
December 21st, 2004 at 10:14 pm
I have had a similar experience with MP3Search. I gave them my $30 and downloaded a number of songs (a dozen or so). I tried to burn them to a CD with no success. The problem is not with my burner (for a change) but with the format of the songs being not copy-able. I’ve not received the courtesy of a reply to my e-mails for assistance and there’s absolutely nothing on their website advising that their format can’t be copied. This sounds more like a Russian Mafia scam than a legitimate website. I supposed I should be please that I’m only out $28.50.
PS I’d be happy to log in (and avoid the “Anonymous Coward” appelation) but your site doesn’t show me how. Before you call names, perhaps you should check your responsibility.
December 21st, 2004 at 10:21 pm
Hi, it´s the same to me: Since 14 days I cannot load down (the rates are hours for a song and stops downloading after several minutes - before it takes about a minute and it was ready) - and the last days the site is not aviable. With all the downloads that I made there are NO PROBLEMS to burn them on CD - I do it with Itunes-programm and there was never a song that was not ok or even not able to burn - try with these program that you will find without costs (google). Nice Christmas-Days from Germany / Cora
December 22nd, 2004 at 8:02 am
Again I am the same and have had $20.00 in th account for about 6 months. I think about $17 remaining. Fantastic service, and no probs with burning to cd. What a dissappointment when I could not get on to the site this morning. If anyone knows of MP3search.ru having been closed down, moved, or temporarily unavailable please let me know here or at Livvy47@hotmail.com
December 23rd, 2004 at 9:57 am
Same story here.
I used this service for most of the year, recently I paid $20 into my account.
The last 2 weeks the server doesn’t seem to be up, when it is you can purchase music but downloading it is a major problem.
I suppose i’ve had my monies worth but a shame it seems to have gone down taking lots of people’s money!
December 24th, 2004 at 8:28 am
Seems ok today (24th) downloaded quite a few tracks and very fast speed.
Don’t know how long it willl last for!
February 10th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
I believe you are correct my friend it was good while it lasted.
they have taken what was left in our accounts and closed down.
Thanks no doubt to the lawyers and politicians
August 25th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
I have never had a problem with the site, only if I try to download more than 5 songs at a time does it become temporarily unavailable.
October 5th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
I am currently experiencing the same problems, but if the dates on the previous emails are correct (one says 19/1/2038…) has this happened before and despite getting vfm while it lasted I am still losing £15. Scam or wot?
October 6th, 2005 at 3:05 am
yeah the site was up 2 days ago… then nothing…. hasn’t been up since then. Maybe they have been shut down again. a few months back the same issue happened but it was oly a day offline… be nice to be told when they go down
October 6th, 2005 at 3:08 am
Never had an problem with burning the music to CD/DVD. I use nero and it converts the mp3 stright to wav for normal cd playing. Also burn as is to dvd for storage.
why log in. whats the benefit?
October 6th, 2005 at 3:53 am
Oh great, you mean we are all out all of this money now? I thought I had found a legit site, done the right thing by paying to download songs and now I am out 20 bucks! If you paid with Credit card, call your CC company. I am calling mine right now to dispute the charge since I did not receive what I paid for. Good luck all.
October 6th, 2005 at 4:36 am
I finished downloading an album this morning. It was up at about 1AM Colorado US time. I’m going to hope that they will be back up shortly. They’ve been great, and I’ve been downloading with them over a month or so. Has gone down before, but I don’t recall it going down for much longer than a day.
October 6th, 2005 at 11:21 am
idiot - still around! share some morons make up answers…
October 6th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
Hi went on to mp3 search ru site this morning,like the rest of you page anavailable.Have never had any problems downloading music.Started end of july had no problems until now.If this has happened before pehaps there system has crashed & that they will be back soon.
Rod from Devon in England
October 6th, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Who are you calling morons and idiots.
October 6th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
I have been using these guys since early 2004 and only once before has this happened in December last year (2004) and they were down for about 48 hours in most places and actually gave their customers a couple of dollars credit for the inconvenience. I don’t know what has happened this time but I will wait and hop they come back. For what it’s worth the amount of money Ihave saved by not buying cds for the last year and half should I loose the $20US I had in credit I will accept but be dissappointed such a great service has not pulled through
October 7th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
I have been trying for 2 days now to access the site, to date they have been excellent, good quality downloads. Does anyone know whether they are closed permanently or whether they are just busy upgrading servers or something?
October 7th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
i’ve also used this site for over a year w/o problems. never known it to go down more than hours at most. with the recent RIAA suit filings i fear it is gone w/ whatever money people had in credit. they couldn’t be sued being russian company but still MAY be related to music industry’s struggle to regain their ability to gouge listener’s w/ vastly over-priced cd prices as they have from day one. more $ for lawyers & big business……hooray
October 7th, 2005 at 9:47 pm
if it was permanent, we would have gotten a warning or similar beforehand. Correction: WE SHOULD have gotten a warning. But this has happened before, and mp3search.ru has been around for years now, I think its just a server issue… hopefully
October 8th, 2005 at 1:56 am
I too am unable to access mp3 Ru. There had been earlier debate about the legality of the operation. Apparently it was leagal under Russian Law but I would not be suprised if they have been closed down or at least suspended pending legal action. You can probably kiss your money goodbye and would be wise to check future statements for unauthorised debits, although the use of verisign via Holland indicates that they were trying to be a legitimate business just using the vagaries of Russian Law to rip off copyright holders, not consumers.
My email is arthmawr@yahoo.com if you wish to correspond - The interview in question was part of an appleworld discussion board
October 8th, 2005 at 6:18 am
As I too have put money on mp3search.ru (I still have about $20 in my account) I am concerned too. Over the last few days I have been frantically searching the net to find research on this company on message boards, etc. Apparently, this quick shutdown of their entire website/service has happened before. Sometimes weeks from what I have found. I have already downloades between 20-30 albums, so I still feel that I got my money’s worth, but it would be nice to either buy more music or request the remainder of my balance be put back on my credit card. My advice, keep trying to log on. But when and if they get back online, I’m taking my money and running. Good luck all.
October 8th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
Yeah same here.Not been able to access mp3search.ru for 4 days now…..Its a shame that is appears to have been closed down cause it was an awsome site……I had just put $40 credit on too…..so am a bit annouyed at that, but have used the site for over a year and must have saved $100’s so its not a huge deal.
www.allofmp3.ru is still up and running..thank the lord…
October 8th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
The last couple of weeks or so the server capacity was constantly being exceeded, so they may just be upgrading. allofmp3.com is still there, and I can’t see legal action of any sort being taken against one and not the other.
Anyway, even they are gone, I’d got my money’s worth. It might at least make the point to a very greedy industry that people are sick of being ripped off by inflated prices, especially in Europe.. and that if their own downloads were cheaper (and that doesn’t have to be anywhere near as cheap as the Russian sites) they would make more profit rather than less.
October 8th, 2005 at 10:48 pm
A new message on the site states they will be back in a few days, all members should receive an email.
I’ve used the site for over a year and have never had any problems.
October 9th, 2005 at 4:46 am
I’ve never had any trouble burning the songs onto mp3, and the popularity of the site suggests noboby else has either. All are in standard mp3 format. They are hardly likely to advise people that they can’t copy them when they can !
Can you create a playable CD with other mp3s? My apologies if I am insulting your intelligence, but it sometimes pays to go back to basics (and I’ve seen someone get this wrong before!) - you do know you have to use Nero or similar software to burn the songs AS a CD, and not just copy over the mp3 files?
As someone else said, there’s a message now saying they’ll be back ( a major system failure of some sort seems the likely explanation), so don’t write off your money yet.
As to a scam, no it isn’t, although your guess as to where the money ends up probably isn’t far off the mark. It is hugely popular (10c rather than 99c or more?!), and makes far more money as a legitimate business, under Russian law anyway.
October 9th, 2005 at 4:47 am
Sorry.. I meant “burning to CD” obviously. Like the other poster, I’ve never had any trouble backing up the mp3s to DVD for storage, either.
October 10th, 2005 at 8:51 am
Glad to see that mp3search is coming back.It seems alot of people have no patience and thought it was a scam,but if something has been working well for that long I should think its safe.I am sure it must be upgrading or there system crashed,we have all had that happen I guess.
October 10th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
The website now displays the following message:
“Our website will be available again in next several days.
All customers will be notified by e-mail in short time.”
Hopefully they remembered our credits
October 12th, 2005 at 8:32 am
This isnt a scam. It is completely legal in russia to do this. They buy the right of the music cheap and then sell it. In russia, about 10 cents is about $2.00 there. So there getting a hell of a lot more than you think. site may be back or not im not sure but i been with them for lil over a year and ver had a much problem. there have been discussion that there server went down and there redoing everything. I heard possibley wednesday they will b e back up. dont count me on that tho.
October 14th, 2005 at 8:42 am
web page now states it will be back on the 13 october.Today is the 14 october,still missing
October 15th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
Damn it, MP3search.ru still hasnt come back even though its far past 13.october… they better get their **** together soon
October 16th, 2005 at 6:16 am
Yeah Im having the same problem. Im glad to hear it isnt just my computer glitching with the site. Im confused by the message though that says the website will be back up by Oct. 13th. Obviously not!
October 16th, 2005 at 10:39 am
Our website will be available again at oct 13, but today is already oct 16. what the fuck is this site. Are we ripped off??
October 16th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
I know its late but lets try & be patient.I still think it will be back soon.If not we will have to go to the three sites and they will lose our custom.Every one have a nice week.
October 16th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
Hey yeah same old same old…wonderng how much progress is being made cuz it still says it’ll be back by the 13th Oct, way gone, but that note hasn’t been updated. Guessing they’ve either given up and gone home, or they’re working their ass’s off to get up and running so can’t waste the time posting us notes about start up times…This site saved me shit loads of money too so start praying this gets sorted..
October 17th, 2005 at 9:06 am
It seems that the date is now going to be 18 october.Lets hope thay have got it right this time.Fingers crossed.
October 18th, 2005 at 9:29 am
came back on the 18th as they said but are still having problems as I bought an album but could not download it,never had that problem before.Sent them an email to let them know,let you all know the reply if I get one.
October 24th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
The site is up and running, the downloads now working but there is heavy traffic. Bandwidth on the downloads is good but the search funictions overloads alot…… good stuff its up tho.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Actually the site is up and running but it’s not been updating at all after the site reopened. There are some albums that I want but I can’t get them because its not updating.
February 4th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
http://www.allofmp1.com/
It’s very easy to use our site - whithout your registration just choose a song or album you like, pay me through e-gold and download it! No directing links, everything is simple and convenient! Enjoy our smaller music collection!
January 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
try this
1- start menu, run, type cmd press enter
2- type ipconfig/flushdns press enter
3- type ipconfig/registerdns press enter
4- try to access the site mp3search. ru it should work