Friday, January 20, 2012

LICKING WOUNDS AND TAKING STOCK AFTER THE CLAMPDOWN

Now that the Corporatist villains in our "justice department" have seen fit to visit tyranny upon all of us by destroying Megaupload (and with it, broad swaths of this blogs content, including the hundreds of titles from early in the life of Mutant Sounds that had recently been re-upped to Megaupload), I'm just lying low and taking stock of how best to approach the salvaging of our content. Stay tuned folks...Mutant Sounds isn't going down without a fight!

77 comments:

Holly said...

So sorry. I can't begin to imagine you must feel, all that time & effort & dedicarion :-(

arnold paole said...

''We May Feel About To Fall, But We Go Down Fighting'' Said Todd Rundgren Once...Fight The Good Fight,We Wish You Well.

Unknown said...

I will be fighting too and encourage all the bloggers reading to do the same.
We know what we do and why we do it and none of what corporate cunts decide will make it change.
Resist!

Henk Madrotter said...

same here:( those nazi bastard, but i ain't gonna stop either!

Rope and Pulley Records said...

Sorry this has happened to you guys. I appreciate your making this great music available.

Rope and Pulley Records said...

Sorry this has happened to you guys. I appreciate your making this great music available.

Anonymous said...

thanks for this post!

resipiscent said...

No idea what your bandwidth needs may be, but a cable modem or T1 line from home would allow brilliant upgrades like http://subsonic.com

Just a wishful thot
-resipiscent

Anonymous said...

Tyranny has raised it's head and it's time to fight or die.
The complete disregard for the cultural importance of archives compiled by this site and so many others- Sites who have shown diligent respect for copyright law.

VDOANDSOUND, let me say that all your efforts and total selflessness in sharing these treasures has not and will not go to waste. MUTANT SOUNDS' role in this is symbolic of the thoughtlessness of all this, but take heart that this event woke a sleeping dragon. Somebody's going down.

I agree, probably a good time to lay low and see how this thing shakes out. One thing's for sure: There's a war on.

Kry-1 said...

Hello,
I just wanna show you a little support. One of the best and also the oldest blogs in the blogosphere. Shame on the government of money.
Filip H. from the Czech Republic

Anonymous said...

When I read about the Megaupload sudden death, I immediately thought about you.

Best wishes, Electric, vdo, Tax and King Mutant <3 <3 <3

john said...

For the past five years, Mutantsounds has played an invaluable part in my life and cultural development, turning me on to countless bands and improving my perspective on life and art in the process. I am sure there are many, many others who feel the same. Hang in there mutantsounds, and don't give up hope... it's always darkest before the dawn...and I've gotta feeling this coming dawn is gonna be a motherfucker!

DanP said...

I'm very sorry about this. This event has been a huge kick in the pants for me as well. I've been working on a project for which I've had great enthusiasm and in which I've taken great pleasure. All the data for said project was...you guessed it...stored on Megaupload. The project is toast. Best wishes, good luck, many thanks for your work, see you soon!

Kurtz said...

Right on.

Hope Against Hope said...

No more pigs in our community. Off the pigs!"
and
"No more brothers in jail. Off the pigs!

Anonymous said...

we are with you

chocoa said...

great job man-thanks!

ROCK OUT!

Anonymous said...

"Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!"

Do as Bob told us and continue the fight to bring good music to the world!

앤서니 said...

as soon as it happened, i went over here to check up... who knows how much great art was lost in one fell swoop? maybe you should try mediafire... parallel dlownloads, no waiting. all my files on my blog are mediafire, except for a coupla megauploads i have to replace...

i hope you guys get this sorted out soon... you've been one of my favorite blogs going on 5 years, and i hope this will only waylay you for a minute.

^_^

Unknown said...

Thank you for all of your contributions and for opening us all to a new world of music. Peace.

Mr. Craig said...

I took a major hit yesterday too so I can understand your feelings. We have more soldiers, more resources and more intelligence than the enemy so I am hopeful we will prevail.

Anonymous said...

whatever, its just mp3s, data. its temporary, not permanent. it can all be replaced/reuploaded/reshared. itll take time, no worries. megaupload was illegal and we all knew it, this day was bound to come. time to start fresh.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm yes Megaupload going down is crap but think of postings more like physical releases - they are in print for a while and then sell out. I for one get Blog postings whilst I can I don't expect them to be around two years later.

tm said...

Clumsy, frustrated gestures like this are absurd and only demonstrate a kind of infantile tantrum. People in the nooks and crannies of culture, who govt and business cannot understand or appreciate one bit, are left to pick up the pieces.

Without Mutant Sounds there's a whole load of stuff I probably wouldn't have come across, out of print stuff, stuff that has worked its way into my life and is now very key to my interests and studies. E.g. it's via MS that I first heard Phantom Payn (the name I knew before from Freak Emporium catalogues back in teens) which has led to contact with the man himself since, exchanging letters and comics.

Anyway, suffice to say much appreciatin and support is here for you.

D.Stands said...

my 2 cents : we music fans have a big advantage on film & series watchers : our files are small. Even when we download albums in flac it's still smaller than an episode of Desperate Housewifes of some other rubbish.

Let's use this fact and upload every single file on a different host !

if everyone reading this spead the word, and if every music blog adopts this strategy from now on, the "legal guys" will be discouraged, they will have to take so much more time to make all of them close... They'll never take the pain to do it, since the big issue is not music files but movies and series. Of course this means that some links will often be down without people noticing it. But it would really screw those guys up, wouldn't it ?

Anonymous said...

Iron good luck!
Thanks for all and at a next time.
Friendly from France

spavid said...

Good luck in getting everything (or at least some of it) reestablished. I've got all my files on Rapidshare, and even though they're supposedly a European venture, I can't help but feel quite vulnerable myself.

Oozlum said...

...never-ceasing effort to remove its barrier shall we make for PEACE...

http://tinyurl.com/6nt5xd8

Exeter said...

Thanks for all your energy and work you have put into this blog. I am also quite upset! Good luck in finding an alternative...

Anonymous said...

heil MUTANT SOUNDS!!!!

faustain said...

There are so many bad bastard greedheads that it makes you wonder..
WHY?

I hope you manage to get your stuff back somehow... goodluck

Anonymous said...

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much for opening my ears up to many, many new sounds. I really appreciate all that you guys have done to make this site amazing. It has truly been an inspiration. Best of luck with everything. We've got your back!

Cheers,
Chris

Anonymous said...

Your contribution to keeping these musics alive is uncountable, and I am shocked and sadenned that so much has been lost in this recent move by the US authorities.

I'm really quite unable to adequately express my appreciation for all your work, but I hope that you decide to continue and use a service that is less blatant about the "dodgy copyrighted" stuff.

Rapidshare comes to mind, since it's located in Switzerland / Germany and has actually fought lawsuits over the issue.. the other sites, I'm not so sure about (I have no affiliation with Rapidshare aside from living in CH).

All the best!

RR

Mr Tear said...

Your effort over the years has been much appreciated by all of us who've been exposed to some wonderful sounds through your fantastic blog. I hope your lay-low period is short lived and you're sson back up and fighting the good fight.
Me? I'm going to keep on posting until someone tries to stop me.

Good Luck!

zerokomma said...

Hope Muto-sounds will keep ruling the blogosphere!

Anonymous said...

what I don't get is why the U.S is trying to pass bills like SOPA/PIPA when they have clearly shown that they can shut down "rogue piracy websites" (megaupload) without them and better yet in a foreign country. MPAA is used as a guise for further "legal" regulation and censorship of the final frontier of real freedom we have left..the internet. the war has begun and the fight must ensue. thank you for all your work here@ mutant sounds. it's blogs like these all over the world that make the internet the final safe haven for freedom of speech, thought sharing/creation, collaboration and community. when you get to the core of all this you will realize that this isn't about anti-piracy.. it's all part of a much much bigger picture. dig deep and find the truth ! I recommend the THRIVE: what on earth will it take? documentary.

Anonymous said...

The big corporations don`t like that we choose our own music that we listen to wath we want,they want us to listen to music they think we have to ,the one that gives them profits ,and don`t make us think. the free internet allows freedom of election and acces to everybody , poor or rich to culture.
Thanks mutant sounds for give us freedom.

Jay Willman said...

Hi, I'm Jay Willman, creater, producer and owner of the Class Info music you sell here. While I encourage the buying and selling of my vinyl; if you sell my music as MP3s , thats not cool. So, please, don't offer my music for download unless its to sell it on vinyl. Thanks, Jay

Aaron said...

Thanks for all you guys have done for the blogosphere over the course of your existence. Megaupload's takedown makes me wish Anonymous could have taken down justice.gov permanently, instead of a few hours. I know you guys can bounce back from this. Keep fighting the good fight.

앤서니 said...

another one bites the dust:

filesonic is now dead.

guess that option if off the table. gonna go get the few personal files i have from mediafire... they could be next!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57363594-93/filesonic-disables-file-sharing-in-wake-of-megaupload-arrests/

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I can't empathize with the founder of Megaupload. Basically getting mega rich from storing free and unauthorized downloads of music by many artists (and labels) who got nothing from it. Nope, that's not right.

http://news.yahoo.com/megaupload-kingpin-tells-zealand-court-innocent-005152898.html

pepesaurio said...

don't give up, it's hard start over but they can't win this so easy, thank you for all the music, sorry for the bad english

vdoandsound said...

Jay Williams-this is a sharity blog. No one is selling anything. Since you seem bothered though, I've gone ahead and removed the upload of your EP that my partner in the blog shared all the way back in 2007.

Anonymous said...

Thanks everybody for the past work, and for the future´s. Listening Blacklight Braille now.
J. from Spain

teifidancer said...

thanks...... you have introduced me yo some amazing sounds....... hope you find some ways to stay free... in solidarity.

Anonymous said...

filelocker networks have basically demonstrated how to do media consumption online well - flat monthly fees for vault access

they've been incredibly popular because sure they're cheap-to-free, but more crucially they're not difficult to use and their catalogue is gigantic and ever expanding, kept up to date, monitored and stocked by the most dedicated curators - media enthusiasts and hobbyists the world over

(works out to be something like the tv license we pay to the BBC in the UK every year)

this is the model major industry firms have to emulate and better in terms of price, ease of use and range to really Defeat Piracy. perhaps some day one of the beast's brains will actually figure this out and do it! spotify etc. is a start but...

Anonymous said...

Thanks so very much for the amazing work you've done with this blog. You've done so much. Keep up the fight there thousands of silent lurkers here who need you!

Free Sheet Music said...

While the problem may need fixing, this surely wasn't the way to do it!

Anonymous said...

I know it's not your deal...but I (and I'd guess many, many others?) would be willing to make a donation to get you back on track. what you guys are doing and have done here has changed me for good and for the better.
there's no way I would have been able to wrap my ears around 1/100th of this incredible music as a broke younger bloke.

Thank you mutant sounds and all the best getting this shit sorted.
much love and respect from down under

Anonymous said...

Please tell me if I can help. I have hundreds of albums that were upped here. Would be glad to help with the re-uploads.

Cheers,

Neil

Anonymous said...

keep going

Casey said...

Jesus Christ
does everything special and sacred have to be destroyed cause someone thinks they can make even more money?

vdoandsound said...

Neil-That is extremely kind of you to offer! Please get in touch with me privately at pantheonbar (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks,

Eric

Matthieu Séry said...

I am in the same case as Neil, could
offer to help too.
Thank you for your great work...

Ozymandias said...

Thank you for all your great music over the years. What has happened is such a shame. All the best.

Galavantingcherub said...

Hello Mutant Sounds - I'm another huge fan. I just posted the below message on the No Longer Forgotten Music blog, as he said he was working out alternatives to 'locker' uploads. I thought you might be interested too:

Newsgroups might be a better bet, though on the surface they appear a little complicated. I think that’s why very few people in the blogosphere know how to use them - but if you give them no choice then they'll learn quick. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to place NZB files ('keys' to access the data, which you then open with a program like SuperNZB) directly on to a blog. Download speeds are pretty quick, and I think your files potentially remain available forever, though I MIGHT be wrong about this (files are removed from a server after a period of 500-1500 days, but then they also ‘migrate’ from server to server). It’s also free, should you decide to use your own ISP’s newsgroup. I understand it’s a good idea using a ‘premium’ newsgroup server for a flat monthly fee, though I’m not sure why yet as am also a newbe to this. There’s a great guide to setting up here if you’re interested http://www.slyck.com/Newsgroups_Guide_NZB_Files

gabe said...

I'm so sorry about this. Mutant Sounds was the first thing I thought of when I heard about megaupload. I love your blog, you have exposed me to so much wonderful music.

Kind of in line with Neil's offer, once you decide on a new site, you should just make a post and ask people to upload all the albums they have from here and post the new links in the comments. Just provide a list of which ones need new uploads, so people know where to look. And maybe make the list a shared document of some kind, so people can announce which have been completed (or moderate it through comment feedback). Kind of a mini crowd-sourcing experiment, but I bet it would be mostly complete within a week or so. I would certainly help.

Another possibility would be managing your own server of files, which would allow you much more freedom in how people access them, but I understand that you probably want to avoid file-hosting for legal reasons.
You could try switching to torrents and seed them from a server located outside of the U.S. You could either coordinate this with friends who live elsewhere, or buy server space from a company.

Best of luck, I'll be watching the blog and hoping :)
Gabe

heyvincent said...

You're an invaluable resource, I hope you'll be able to recover.

morgan criger said...

Thank you for what you have done through this blog.

Anonymous said...

Желаю востановиться скорее, не сдавайтесь!

frostymug said...

This is the real reason MegaUpload was taken down: They were on the verge of releasing a new service called MegaBox which is a cloud-based music service that would connect artists and consumers and cut out the record labels entirely. Artists would receive 90% of earnings!
Read about it here:
http://goo.gl/A7wUZ

Anonymous said...

you must stay with us

Erick Bradshaw H said...

The government should give you guys a MacArthur Genius grant. You're doing more for lost culture than swathes of anthropology depts. Not too mention the ultimate example of a music blog! Fuck.

DP magazine said...

Mutant Sounds is one of best place in internet, I'm no kidding. A lot of my friends share with it. It's a coolture, it's for preserve and for make our thoughts horizons wider. What we can do, tell us, please.

Anonymous said...

Hope you will soon overcome this setback with renewed courage and will to offer some more precious music, Mutant Sounds.

Flash Strap said...

Good luck, man. Fight the power.

Anonymous said...

Sad news indeed, and I like many thought of your site first when I heard the news. Your blog is hands down my favorite blog on the web and when it allowed I have bought music based on the music shared here. Goes without saying, that these sites help create demand and opportunity.

Thanks for all the past great music and I look forward to the future.

CarneZafiro said...

What you have already done, your contribution is amazing. I want to thank you because I consider this site a school. Many thanks

Anonymous said...

Good riddance you freeloading self entitled spoiled brats.
Reading all your comments makes me realize how deeply uneducated and flawed your collective rationales are.
I find it somewhat bemusing that people such as yourselves talk about free music and free this and that yet are earning money from your blogs, as Google is earning money from your blogs and so on, and so on.
When it boils down to it there is no real reasonable rationale for your actions. They are the actions of a greedy and spoiled child.

If you want these things so badly then why don't you go and find them and buy them? Quite simple really.

Anonymous said...

anonymous needs to realize that the records being shared on this blog and many other blogs aren't available to buy from anywhere other than greedy record collectors that charge obscene amounts of money for those records...the artist doesn't see any of that money.

bfg666 said...

This is why it's a good idea to provide links for more than just one site.
Hint: my personal favs for downloading are Rapidshare and Mediafire (no waiting & no damn captcha). Sendspace is cool, too.

Holly said...

Gee, bfg666, really? My gosh, how clever of you make that blindingly astute observation! And we all really do care about your favorite - hint hint one your favorites is deleting files left & right. Just fyi.

How about offering to reupload something on 1 of your favorite sites?

the saucer people said...

It is actually an interesting concept that the entire Mutant Sounds collection exists virtually in a host of local hard-drives all over the world..in this sense it can never be killed if the organising principle of a database of dated posts is maintained (though how readily it can be transferred into other formats is beyond my non-techie capacity)...

An idea may be for the readers to take the initiative in the future and post copies of the rip at the hosting site of their choice in the comments section...if you like the release, make sure it is there for future audiences who have yet to discover the music (I know I am always visiting MS posts from 2007 been somewhat of a sub-cultural johhny-come lately with many artists)...

...any thoughts on future-proofing MS posts through readers own links in the comments section?

As the suggested option: Checked out the Righthaven site, seems very expensive but I am sure many of us would contribute knowing the files are secure.

Brød and Sirkus said...

NEVER SURRENDER!

Anonymous said...

great job

thanks

dj mixes said...

yeah, these unlucky developments have put lots of bloggers on the brink of destruction (of their blogs)... so sad, noone really can do anything.. it's a shame..

Kristo said...

Can someone please fill me in on what happened ? How can I help out here ?