Allofmp3sparks is legal. Period. I can go on holiday to Russia and buy the same CD’s that were sold on AllOFMP3, at the exact same pricepoint AllOFMP3 sold them with. Music, under compulsory license, was paid for through ROMS, paying them at a 15% rate (that’s about 1 cent per track of 8 cents). Compare this to the true leeches, the RIAA and friends, who demand 80 cents per track and pay the musicians under a cent per track. The RIAA bitched and moaned that they weren’t getting money from AllofMP3. This is true. However:

– AllofMP3 wouldn’t pay them, ROMS would.
– ROMS pointed this out, and RIAA affiliates REFUSED to even collect the money they were entitled to. Technically the RIAA isn’t lying when they say ROMS hasn’t paid them sufficiently, but essentially they are lying because ROMS tried to pay and they refused payment! They made a point of refusing payment, just so they could argue they weren’t getting paid!

Really smart to get the IFPI to invent lies using the WTO, and force the Russian government to get involved.
The new version of AllOFMP3 is paying royalties to ROMS *and* NP-FAIR. I bet the RIAA just refuses royalty payments from them too, so they can bitch about not getting paid. Musicians should individually let NP-FAIR and/or ROMS know they are happy to directly get cash from them, since they’ll get more than they do from the RIAA.
So, don’t believe the hype, and read the Moscow Times for a more balanced judgement in these music industry death throes. What is generally called the “music industry” consists of violently opposed parties: small labels against big labels; publishers against recording rights owners; managers against everyone else. Much time is spent screwing or suing one another. Usually at the expense of the consumer and the artist.

update july 5
It appears mp3sparks.com has no DNS info anymore. But either way, there’s alltunes.com (same content, same user-accounts, different layout) and gomusic.ru.