AllofMP3.com

Every so often, there comes a wave of alarm that rolls its way across the web proclaiming that AllofMP3.com has gone down — for good. TechCrunch ran with the story yesterday, and I picked it up via Alex. The story had the appearance of this-time-this-could-be-true because of the news about the new lawsuit, and other sites weighed in.

As of tonight, the site is up but not accepting orders. I continue to think that AllofMP3 is a disruptive challenge to the music industry of great creative potential:

AllofMP3 is surely now so well-known and celebrated that it must represent a challenge to the RIAA, the BPI, the IFPI et al that can no longer be met just by drawn out legal actions across different countries. That's the dull reaction of retreating, defeated and dying armies. The more meaningful challenge is to the business model of the music industry and the blue ocean opportunity here is striking: 'We argue that beating the competition within the confines of the existing industry is not the way to create profitable growth' (with thanks to Tom Peters).

I was interested to read in the Register last Friday that:

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.

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