Here’s a surprise. Russia’s AllofMP3.com is more popular than the disinterred Napster, says XTN, basing its finding on Alexa.com stats.
Actually, given Napster’s dismal performance, that’s not much of a compliment.
Moreover, Alexa.com data are far from representative and in the real world of online music, AllofMP3.com downloads probably easily exceed those of iTunes, usually cited by the lamescream media as the standard for the all-but non-existent corporate music industry online music business.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting finding.
“According to XTN, Apple’s iTunes Music Store accounted for 44 per cent of music download purchases in the UK last month,” says The Register. 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.”
AllofMP3.com, which sells its tunes for mere cents based on download size versus the $1 and more charged by iTunes for individual files, says it’s legal by virtue of the fact it’s licenced through its parent company and the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society and the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively.
It also says some of the money goes back to the artists.
“Under Russian law, the licence permits the company to sell any song in any format, the site claims, without necessarily first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder,” the story points out, going on:
“That, says the music industry, puts the site beyond the pale. But while the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is certainly keeping its eye on the site, it has yet to take any direct action against it. Last year, it made a formal complaint to the Russian authorities, only to see Moscow prosecutors drop the case because a loophole in the country’s copyright laws, which are geared toward the protection of content of physical media.”
Meanwhile, when we went over to AllofMP3.com to see how things are going, we found, “Приносим свои извинения, сервер остановлен на обслуживание (We are sorry but the server is closed for maintainance).