Saturday, February 9, 2013

THE RE-UPS AND DOWNS OF FILE SHARING

There's been a reason for the extra long span of time since my last posts went up: I've needed time to weigh my options and determine if this shebang is still worth keeping afloat. I say that because Rapidshare, as far as I can tell, appear to be waging something of a stealth campaign against Mutant and presumably others in the sharity blog realm; a kind of covert war of attrition in which they simply chip away at you incrementally, by arbitrarily removing files that were only just recently re-upped, by marking files as "illegal" even though they're often for some of the most obscure things imaginable, by requiring an elaborate re-arrangement of account settings and then still managing to mark dozens of these files as being unavailable because you don't have permission to download them in spite of this. It's now two steps back for every one step forward and it's rendering the whole process of doing Mutant into a titanic headache.

After umpteen re-up campaigns, what I am now willing to do is the following. A few months back I posted a list of 300+ newly re-upped files. Those new links were never formally punched into their respective posts as I got busy with other creative activities but I'll now plug those back into the posts. So too, a Greek friend of the blog has been helping over time with the re-up campaign and I've accumulated another hundred or so more files to re-up from him. Those will go up soon along with a list containing links to them all, but beyond re-upping those, I've now officially reached the end of spinning my wheels retracing the same ground. New posts will continue on the roughly bi-monthly schedule that they've been arriving at for some time, but all the rest of my spare time will now return to being concentrated on Vas Deferens Organization and label activities instead of this redundant bullshit.

For titles that are down, feel free to re-up them at will elsewhere including on Youtube, though a link back to the original post would be appreciated. I'm sorry I'm incapable of offering better than this, but the sheer scale of the undertaking means that there is only so many times I can attempt this.

New posts will be up by early next week. Stay tuned...

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU and GOOD LUCK!
I, for one, will keep in touch!

Skidd

Roddus said...

Thanks dude, that answers my questions I asked in another post on reupping links. Frankly you(and previously Jim) have done a sterling job of keeping these links up and it is a time consuming job and I don't know how you have managed to dedicate so much time to this blog(I have my own blog and it is difficult to find time just on a simple blog like mine)

So perhaps its time to let the links die and as you say just concentrate on uncovering new undiscovered out of print gems every so often. Those of us who follow you posts regularly will sample these while they are active but after that, once the links get deleted or whatever else befalls them let people search out the obscure artefacts themselves or let others post links as you say. Once you let these rare albums into the interweb for the first time, others soon jump on the band wagon and post them elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

rapishare/mediafire time are behind us...

"I believe that RS days are numbered." said a friend.

spavid said...

Spavid from Wilfully Obscure here. Sounds like your Rapidshare deletion experience is on a micro scale, while one was quite macro and a lot more immediate. I had great success with them for 5+ years, until they suddenly locked my account for similar reasons a three weeks ago. They were hosting over a 1000 files of mine, and they were all tagged as "illegal" in an instant.

They refused to let me even have personal access to anything. Even called their tech support department in Switzerland, and they still refused to budge. On top of that I had a PAID premium account with Rapidshare.

Felt really, really gutted when it all went down, but opted to continue using another file hoster, Netkups.com. Am forever keeping my fingers crossed that the floor doesn't drop out on me again. I hope you can find a solution.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the best sites on the net.Why anyone would try and stop it is beyond me.Completely understand if you have to stop but it would be such a shame.Either way,thanks and good luck.

Anonymous said...

Rapidshare and Mediafire are killing off a bunch of my favorite music blogs. It was fun while it lasted.

Maybe we could try to make one big Mutant Sounds torrent with all the old stuff. Then the new stuff will just need to be uploaded the old fashioned way.

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful blog. Thank you and good luck.

Unknown said...

I've had the same problem,but slowly am reupping everything to the more obscure file sharers.It would be a tragedy, to quote the Steps hit, for Mutant Sounds to give up.I know its a pain in the arse, but no-one expects you to re-up everything within a few weeks. Places like Deposit files and Crammit.in seem to be unaffected....it may be a matter of time ,but I don't think the smaller companies are under the same influences as RS and MF.
I may be kidding myself but,y'know.
Nick (Die or DIY?)

Unknown said...

Mutant Sounds, try to use a system like Dropbox, oldies like Soulseek or FTP, or another modern systems of exchange... and we kick together these Rapidshares and Midiafires!
The only thing you want is that you stand firm with this blog!

Anonymous said...

Use Zippyshare or Rapidgator...they are within the best filehosts right now and they don't seem to go down every two weeks (especially Zippy...)

Anonymous said...

I don't really get where is the problem here.
The are DOZENS of free filehosts around, more or less obscure. If you got fed up with Rapidshare or Mediafire, just say your big "fuck you" to them and use one or two other filehosts for regular posting. Encourage the readers of the blog to reupload posted zips to as much others filehosts as possible and left the links in comments. Readers also could create a torrents on free trackers (like PirateBay) and left the links to those torrents here. Using systems like Dropbox is a valuable option as well.
It's really not that hard to maintain all this thing if you don't get stick to a single file storage provider and use the combined power of readers of this blog to spread the stuff and keep it alive.

Anonymous said...

i believe nearly every album uploaded on this site still exists on soulseek, although that too is a legally beleaguered service.

LYSERGICFUNK said...

Good Luck
Thanksalot

Baylor said...

The idea of a megatorrent of Mutant Sounds uploads sounds like a fast way to get all the releases to at least a few people so links can be re-posted when needed. It's a short-term fix, but could lead to more people being able to help in the future.

Anyway, this was always the best music blog even in the glory days before the Megaupload closure. I'd love to see the material uploaded survive as long as possible.

Anonymous said...

A problem I've had is DMCA takedown notices, most of them false positives generated due to some stupid bots. Filehosts such as Zippyshare aren't immune to those either. Some of us don't have the time or patience to keep changing hosts because of bots and the corporate ass-kissing script kiddies who don't have a clue that are running them.

Unknown said...

have you considered http://thepiratebay.se/? i am willing to bet that many of us are willing to seed these gems!

gabe said...

So, it seems like there are a couple things you could do to make this all easier on you.

The first would be to switch to torrents, as some other people have mentioned above.

Another option, since rapidshare has an API, is to automate the process. I'd be happy to donate some time to developing a script that can check what files are no longer available and automatically re-upload them.

gabe said...

Hey guys,

thanks for all the great work, i know keeping the uploads up can be a huge hassle.

It seems like there are a few options for making it easier.

Option a is to move over to torrents, which some people have mentioned. High up front cost, but more stable in the long run.

You could also host it yourselves, which would probably be the most stable, but has some tech costs up front, and potential liability.

A third option would be to automate the process with rapidshare. It seems like they have an API and I would be willing to donate some time to write a script that would check for files that are no longer available and automatically re-update them. I'd love to donate my time if it helps keep mutant-sounds up and running.
Best, and thanks,
gabe

Dee said...

Whatever happens, a big thank you for all the music!!! Best wishes for the future!!!

ushaped said...

Yes, I agree with many of the commenters: MS is easily one of the most important creative music blogs. Torrents can be an answer to the instability of file lockers.

Whatever decision is made, thank you so much for all the music!

eating kalamazoo said...

fwiw: seems some friends are having luck with:

https://mega.co.nz/

communist said...

the decision is yours, but why not created a DC++ hub where all mutant sounds passers-by can share what has been upped? or the already-mentioned torrent solution

erreur_fatale said...

Man, I think y'all are missing the point. He is just fed up with the whole cat and mouse thing with all of these sites. Doing all of this work and then keeping your fingers crossed, having to constantly check up on what's working and what isn't...reuploads here and there, in small or huge batches. It is a huge endeavor and on top of work, LIFE, being an artist and having his own project that requires much time and energy.....not to mention the STRESS and headache.

I for one am thankful beyond words for the worlds that this blog (and many others) have opened up for me. The joy of discovering so much crazy, obscure and AMAZING music via this blog has been one of the few high points for me of the past few (miserable) years. You've gone above and beyond....for the sake of the music alone. It's people like you who keep the spirit alive, the creative fire burning and catalyze creative revolutions, which is what the past 5 years have been for music: a revolution and complete revitalization. You have been right at the front lines of it. Seriously. <3

Go make some music and have fun, man. That's where it's at. the tunes you guys are making are awesome.

Anonymous said...

You are an amazing person and I value your gracious nature for the gift of obscure music more than anything! Thank You for hanging in there where many other Bolggers have buckled under pressure.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you know, I can't figure out what RS thinks it's doing. Two to three years ago, they completely reworked their business model with the introduction of "rapids," a quasi-currency which then need to be converted into a term of premium use, and also did away with the ability to earn premium time on the site by having files downloaded. Fine, the previous model was probably unsustainable and unlikely to provide returns on shareholders' investments. Now they're playing games with their users in such a way that they'll be lucky if anyone uses their site for free, let alone pays premium prices. How the hell do they think they're going to make money?

Anonymous said...

A huge torrent could be an awesome idea...

You just need a bunch of people agreeing to seed a huge file for a longtime

I don't usually seed my torrent for months but i would be fucking happy to seed for years if i could get an archive of the awesome music you share with us without buying a rapidshare account and spending hours clicking links

harry said...

bring it back!! i like the torrent idea

or dropbox, or google drive or mega.

So so many options. Don't let this music die to spotify