Allofmp3 attempts to lead music industry mutiny

Mediaservice, the company behind the controversial website recently held a ballsy online press conference, inviting journalists and concerned tradesfolk alike to ask all sorts of questions. The conference came soon after US Trade Representative Susan Schwab questioned the site's contents, declaring it "clearly a violation" of intellectual property rights.

The site itself is doing Russia no favours whatsoever, which was recently turned down from the World Trade Organisation for allegedly doing next-to-nothing to protect copyrighted US products and slow the flow of piracy.

Allofmp3 defended itself by saying, in the virtual press conference, that record companies themselves have "little regard" for the majority of musicians. The spokesman went on to say that, in the opinion of Mediaservice, it would be better for artists and the company to deal directly with each other, and that this is the future of the music industry. "We think labels will fade, not disappear but fade, and that artists will have much greater freedom to actually control their work."

VISA has recently revoked the website's account, stifling any kind of direct income. Mediaservice has responded by claiming that it will alter it's business model to an ad-supported distribution scheme, offering users a new software program that will allow them to download any song from the site for nothing at all. The program, which is called "Music for the Masses," will supposedly be available for Windows at first, but an Apple version is planned. The software will only let users listen to music through the software, and songs will only be usable on one computer at a time, says Mediaservice.

Mediaservice honcho Vadim Mamotin says that the company hopes to run advertisements on the music player. "We will lose revenue from music sales, but we hope that the advertising will more than make up for it," he said.

We at the INQ sent a curious query to the press department, comparing the company's scheme to any other mp3-sharing programme, with the significant difference being that it may actually make money through dealing in copyright material. We asked for a comment, but we have not yet received one. µ

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