I’ve marveled over the past year at a mutation from the traditional MP3 Blog format that I’ve posted on previously… the emerging genre of usually-anonymous blogs that post entire albums, usually via file hosting services such as RapidShare. Typically, these sites seem to be the work of hardcore music nuts who are digitizing their rarest vinyl – usually stuff that has never even been considered for CD release. The past few days, WFMU DJ Doug Schulkind has posted on the phenomon:
The variety and quality of free music available on the Internet is simply staggering. The motherlode of music blogs out there donating MP3 freebies of rare, out-of-print and previously unissued recordings make this historical moment the goldenest age ever for music obsessives. As anyone who’s done a bit of online audio prospecting knows, the problem isn’t just finding the stuff, it’s finding the time to excavate the many armloads of albums you absolutely, desperately, ravenously must have.
Schulkind has initiated a series of posts with links to his favorite recent finds (here and here): if you’re open to hearing Afro and Carribean funk, psych-folk from 60’s Detroit, Peruvian Garage, Japanese Fuzz-Freakout with African Percussion, a forgotten 1968 classic with Neil Young guesting on guitar… well, you get the idea. Each of Schulkind’s choice selections link back to blogs which have plenty more where that came from… with links to yet more like-minded blogs.
For adventurous ears, it’s almost too much to fathom. It’s hard to see how long this free ride for aural excavators can go on, but for now there’s a motherlode out there that is limited only by bandwidth and hard drive space.
And then there’s the law…
A friend just bought an Internet Radio at London Drugs and in combination with Reciva, it’s pretty cool. Yeah, I know you can do this all on your computer, but…
Brian,
I find the move away from P2P given the crackdown on sites like Oink and other bitTorrent hubs leading to a necessary change of tact fascinating. I wasn;t aware of how widespread it was until this post, and it’s remarkable to me that people can do this very thing using the old methods of direct downloads and disperse it far and wide enough that it might even become more difficult to track. And the fact that most of this stuff is out of print reminds me of the Cultra Rare model. And while this method seems counter-intuitive given the efficieincy of bitTorrent, it’s actually genius because the authrorites are spending all their time and energy focusing on bitTorrent—another perfect example of the Hydra 🙂
I think might see search sites like Skreemer mutliply in the near future.
Hi Gerry – I’m a huge fan of internet radio, though our household is kind of down on London Drugs these days:
http://tothequick.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/sneaky-plans-underway/
Jim, the comparison with Cultra Rare is apt, as is your note of the hydra… I wish Skreemr would index these posts, though Schulkind notes that Google Blogsearch is not a bad way to look for specific artists. Though what I find with these sights is that many of the best finds are for artists or releases I never knew existed.