28 replies to this topic

[redlion]

What.cd, the world's largest private music tracker, went down today, reportedly after a raid by French authorities.

This is a blow for me. I know most people don't think of torrent trackers as communities, especially if their only exposure to torrents is the pirate bay or some other public tracker. But What.cd was always different. Born out of Oink's Pink Palace, this was possibly the best tracker I've ever been on, with more formats, more active users, and more depth and variety than any tracker you could name.

I was a member for over 7 years, not quite as long as I've been here at Codex, but still, almost as long. I was introduced to countless musical artists that I never would have found otherwise.

It is a sad day for the music community.

Discuss torrents, What.cd, or music in general.
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[Turnip]

I suppose it was bound to get taken down eventually. It's one of the most well-known private trackers around hahaha What other music torrent sites exist? The only other one I know of is jpopsuki

[Kaddict]

I would discuss, but I got an unofficial warning for talking about torrents once. 

 

In any case, that sucks. I hate to hear torrent sites getting shut down, and I also hate to hear of communities of people who were probably good friends/good place to find new mizzik that shut down.

[Scot]

The files are still there, scattered across thousands of hard drives, waiting to be resurrected

[redlion]

The files are still there, scattered across thousands of hard drives, waiting to be resurrected

True, true. But without the tracker data, putting it together again will take a long, long time.

I hate the alternatives for finding music so much. Streaming services suck. Review sites and magazines are okay here and there, but finding a reviewer who has a discerning ear and an identifiable aesthetic is really time consuming.

Downloading was the least of What's services. Browse or search by anything you could think of. Their artist info data was pretty peerless, every artist page had a related artists web, which was useful for discovering new artists. and they had tags! Tags for everything!

Guess I'll have to look for a waffles invite? Or maybe I'll wait for a successor to pop up.

[Generic]

Not that it personally bothers me (when someone actually pays for music or pc games I ask them why), but I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to discuss active torrent sites. I imagine it's a grey area/it's okay to discuss closed down ones like what.cd

 

Either way, it's sad to see an old community shut down. Also it's just generally sad to see a torrenting site get shut down. Rip.

[Elindoril]

Not that it personally bothers me (when someone actually pays for music or pc games I ask them why), but I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to discuss active torrent sites. I imagine it's a grey area/it's okay to discuss closed down ones like what.cd

Either way, it's sad to see an old community shut down. Also it's just generally sad to see a torrenting site get shut down. Rip.

Discussion is fine. Linking directly to illegal content is the rule breaker.

[Turnip]

Guess now is the best time to try and find good direct download communities? How common are those when it comes to western music anyway? I know of a few closed community forums which basically act like private trackers (upload an album for points, use points to access links) but none of them are natively English :x

[Dazz]

True, true. But without the tracker data, putting it together again will take a long, long time.

I hate the alternatives for finding music so much. Streaming services suck. Review sites and magazines are okay here and there, but finding a reviewer who has a discerning ear and an identifiable aesthetic is really time consuming.

Downloading was the least of What's services. Browse or search by anything you could think of. Their artist info data was pretty peerless, every artist page had a related artists web, which was useful for discovering new artists. and they had tags! Tags for everything!

Guess I'll have to look for a waffles invite? Or maybe I'll wait for a successor to pop up.

 

One night, alcohol, and Youtube used to be my main source for new music. Gotta get on one of those suggested video rabbit holes to find the diamonds amongst all the dirt, I think i'm up to around 1,700 songs on my favourites on Youtube now mostly from just doing that. Otherwise it's from browsing other people's playlists on Spotify, I follow a SSBM player who has a huge playlist that's always being added to, exactly the same taste as I do from ABBA to Tupac so see if you can find one of those . Also on Spotify they have the suggested songs on the bottom if you make a playlist and add at least 15 songs or something like that, which I have no idea when they added that feature but I love it.

[Strategist]

Discussion is fine. Linking directly to illegal content is the rule breaker.

Yup, what Elin said. Have at it guys, just stay away from linking to torrents/sites etc and you'll be fine here.

[redlion]

Yup, what Elin said. Have at it guys, just stay away from linking to torrents/sites etc and you'll be fine here.

Yung bloods don kno who i am, wat i done, ya feel me? Boi come up tryin'a tell me wots wot and dis and dat rule, cha!

[Ubermensch]

I prefer piratebay and kickasstorrents for downloading and couchcity/toonova for shows.

It'll probably be back in one way or another, pirating sites are like the Hydra, cut off one head and three more appear

[Kaddict]

tch. I merely mentioned someone torrent something he was looking for and the thread got deleted. I think. It was a long time ago.

[DonValentino]

@ Ubermensch a kickass mirror or something? I miss KAT a lot I've been using rarbg since they went down

[Elindoril]

tch. I merely mentioned someone torrent something he was looking for and the thread got deleted. I think. It was a long time ago.

We've had torrent related discussions in the past no problem.

Maybe someone posted some King Skarl fan fiction in the same thread.

[Drakonid]

Pay for your music please.

[redlion]

Pay for your music please.

I do. At concerts.

Believe me, I support artists more by going to concerts and paying for merch than I possibly could buying albums. Artists get a fraction of the sale price of an album.

This is a debate for another topic really.

[Romy]

A site that facilitated stealing got shut down.

 

Sadness.`

[Drakonid]

I do. At concerts.

Believe me, I support artists more by going to concerts and paying for merch than I possibly could buying albums. Artists get a fraction of the sale price of an album.

This is a debate for another topic really.

 

I'm aware of that.

Disc sales go to support the rest of the music industry. Production and distribution aren't free you know?

[Kway]

I'm aware of that.

Disc sales go to support the rest of the music industry. Production and distribution aren't free you know?

 

But who buys discs today when anybody can digitally distribute at a fraction of the cost?

[Ubermensch]

@ Ubermensch a kickass mirror or something? I miss KAT a lot I've been using rarbg since they went down

Didn't even know it went down? I've been using it pretty regularly a month or two ago?

[redlion]

But who buys discs today when anybody can digitally distribute at a fraction of the cost?

When moving vinyl is no longer necessary to gain an audience, why should artists work for the record label instead of themselves? Yeah...

Besides. Sharing music with your friends has always been legal. Perhaps in the very strictest sense that doesn't apply to members of a filesharing group, but I found music by asking for suggestions from people and going from there. Isn't that the same as asking your buddy to burn you a CD?

Matter of fact, I had a friend who is completely internet illiterate ask me to burn him a CD not two days ago. I played him a song from Propaganda's 1985 A Secret Wish called Dream Within a Dream. This album was featured not a week ago on What as a freeleech pick, and I never would have found it otherwise.

Give it a listen:


Edit: found the remastered version with good audio. There's a movie dialogue scene that is not apart of the song, but it's minimally different from the album..

[Scot]

Don't worry friends, my sources say the other one of OiNK's hydra heads, Waffles, is coming back real soon, and we'll be back on ice cream street baby, eatin' that m-fing ice cream. Slurpin slurpin slurping it up!

[Bones]

I use a particular rather large community site for my warez and that was taken down about 10 days ago.  So far nothing had been said on facebook or the other ways in which the owners get in touch so me thinks it might be down for good this time.  So now its time to find another and I hate having to do that.

[Drakonid]

But who buys discs today when anybody can digitally distribute at a fraction of the cost?

Said disks, meant albums. My bad.

Still, people like buying vinyls because "muh fidelity".