Last week I reported on MusicForMasses, a new program from questionable Russian online music retailer AllOfMP3 that lets you download and listen to every song in their expansive library for free, provide you use their very limited Windows player that requires a net connection. Well, as I predicted in that post, it didn't take long for someone to figure out how to get around MusicForMasses' DRM. The cheekily-named MusicForMe is a program that strips out whatever protections AllOfMP3 is using on its free MP3s and turns them into plain old MP3 files that you can play in the player of your choice. Now, given that AllOfMP3 is of questionable legality in the first place, using MusicForMe is undoubtedly all kinds of illegal, not to mention of entirely unknown origin and infested with who knows what, so under no circumstances do I recommend that you download it from this link. I did try it out myself, though--in the name of science, of course--and it seems to have worked flawlessly. One caveat is that the resulting files have names like "00E117A8.mp3," but their ID3 tags are intact and accurate, so an MP3-renaming program should make short work of them. Seriously, though, MusicForMe is probably totally illegal and possibly dangerous, so use it at your own, not insignificant, risk.
[Thanks, Josh!]
Update: As a number of readers have point out, the original download link is busted. The author has released an updated version of MusicForMe, which includes the MusicForMasses program. Reader Josh says that this program does the same thing as MusicForMe, but works better. I haven't tested either program, much less screened them for viruses, so as always use at your own risk and don't blame me if things go south.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
10-24-2006 @ 5:24PM
Kit said...
Okay, I tried. But how can I add songs from the MusicForMasses player? I mean, like downloading the free mp3s from AllofMP3.com website.
Reply
10-24-2006 @ 6:19PM
peter said...
i cant even login to the original software. says network connection error of some sort, any ideas?
Reply
10-24-2006 @ 6:47PM
Sidd said...
you have to set up an account and click add songs to basket
right below where you have to choose the quality of the download, there is a little button for free
click it and it will add to your basket where you can download it after its done encoding it
Reply
10-24-2006 @ 7:18PM
Josh said...
Wohoo.. I got credited for my first Downloadsquad suggestion :) I was wondering why the download count was jumping so high.. 200 and counting. Nice.
Anyhow, if you guys wouldn't mind, could you use http://rapidshare.com/files/534551/MusicForMasses_MusicForMe.rar instead? It has both the MusicForMasses installers (0.53, the only version that works with MusicForMe) as well as MusicForMe. Plus, its above 1MB so it'd help out my premium point gathering.
Josh
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10-24-2006 @ 7:23PM
Josh said...
One more quick thing,
This software doesn't "crack" the DRM per se, rather it simply dumps the MP3 files from memory after MusicForMasses has already decrypted it.
Reply
10-24-2006 @ 11:20PM
resource said...
Um, yea.
I always joked that I "trusted" AllOfMP3 because I didnt need to DL any software from them.
And now I actually installed software from them.
The shame.
What is a good FREE renamer program?
Thanks.
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 2:50AM
Howard said...
A great (free) mp3 renamer is MusicBrainz [http://musicbrainz.org] (free but they accept donations)...it can do acoustical fingerprinting to identify songs, as well as contextual (by extracting the ID3 information and looking at the current folder structure that the file is stored in)
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 8:04AM
stu said...
Well this all seems pretty useless if the audio quality is locked at 128k
Is there a way to change this?
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10-25-2006 @ 9:26AM
Josh said...
Somebody on Digg just posted another hack that works a bit better than this one now!
1. No BAT files to run, it happens automatically when you play the song.
2. Original file name kept
3. Dumped MP3 is in the same directory as the MP3x, so you don't have to go digging in the MusicForMasses install directory anymore.
Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/617655/M4M-fmod-hack-improved_MusicForMasses.rar
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 9:48AM
Ryan said...
I'm a bit confused... Do I need to join Rapid Share? - I keep getting "Download Session Invalid" errors. - Suggestions?
Thanks,
-Ryan
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10-25-2006 @ 9:50AM
D said...
So why did you remove the TVUPlayer Post?
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 10:24AM
Richard said...
music for free where ever it is http://blog.wired.com/music/2006/09/seeqpod_realtim.html#listen3
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 11:23AM
rothgar said...
I also would like to find a way to at least get 192kbps quality out of this. Oh well, either way I am going to be getting some free music.
I mean, I will be able to use musicforthemasses to listen to the songs from all of mp3.
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 12:18PM
Numbass Newbie said...
Okay, so I have an fmod_original.dll, fmod_hack.h, main.cpp, and fmod.dll What the heck do I do now? How do I actually use this hack?
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10-25-2006 @ 12:39PM
Josh said...
Numbass Newbie,
Just play a mp3x file. It will automatically be dumped into the same folder as the mp3x file.
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 1:15PM
mp3nuts said...
How do I convert the mp3x to mp3 format? I dont get it.
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10-25-2006 @ 1:26PM
Jordan Running said...
mp3nuts: Read the readme file that comes with the program.
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 8:40PM
Mike Spurlock said...
Well, that was quick. Somebody cracks their DRM and their site disappears. 12 midnight, Wednesday morning. Sucks. Maybe it's down for an overhaul?
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 9:16PM
rfgenerator said...
Hmmm, looks like maybe time has run out for allofmp3.com as of 9PM EDT the site is completely offline. Is it A) Simple server problem and they will be back
B)Their business model is no longer viable and you can stick a fork in them because they are now done.
C)Their kickback payments to the Russian mob to allow them to stay open bounced....
or
D)The RIAA "special forces team" just completed their first international operation.
Reply
10-26-2006 @ 12:29AM
zebb said...
damn.. i only got 4 albumns... shnikes!
Reply