File-sharing marches on

1998: oth.net (still around, uses ftp, sketchy)
2000: scour.net (voluntary shutdown), emp3world.com (unreliable)
2001-2002: audiogalaxy (switched to pay), Kazaa (no thanks)
2003: DC++ (diverse selection, fast, European hubs)
2004-2006: DC++, soulseek (lesser known, long queues), torrents (fast, huge selection)
2007-present: www (+)

It’s been 10 years since my first music download (Eagle Eye Cherry’s ‘Save Tonight’) and I haven’t used a torrent in over a year. About two years ago, I began relying on the Internet for my music needs. Interestingly, that’s where it all began – before the days of Napster (which I never used). I remember the days when amazon.com had song previews in the mp2 format. Downloads were slow over dial-up (roughly 20 minutes per song), but at least Winamp was around. Over the past few years, I have slowly lost confidence in file sharing programs or torrents. I just don’t feel safe. Fortunately, in 2006, music blogs really started to spring up around the Internet. Blogs are exciting, current, and feature some random artists. Also, the volume of leaked songs and albums never ceases to amaze me. Who are the insiders and scene-rippers? The world may never know.

If you’re in need of a song, you can often find it by Googling the artist and title followed by file sharing site. Experiment with quotes and Google’s cache. Many obscure songs take some effort, but many up and coming artists can be found on different music blog search sites. Many of these are legal downloads supported by the up-and-coming artists. Blogs are great for stuff that I would otherwise miss out on. Otherwise, there’s always iTunes.

The future:

• zshare: mainstream, but many blogs use this too, fast, links die fast
• mediafire: mainstream, and some remixes, fast
• rapidshare: the standard for albums and movies, fast in evenings (when Europe is asleep)
• megaupload: good for albums, very fast
• 4shared: popular for house music
• zippyshare: house/club music galore,
• speedyshare: some house music, links die quickly
• sendspace: slower, used to be more popular, but links stay longer compared to zshare
• savefile: fast, not as common
• uploaded.to: another option
• box.net: seems better than ever
• fileden: free to upload, but limited bandwidth
• hype machine: the best aggregator for indie music and blog remixes
• filestube: searches rapidshare, fairly handy