Saturday, September 15, 2012

ASSESSING THE MASS FILE WIPEOUT FROM RAPIDSHARE AND DETERMINING STRATEGY

There's been a 600 pound white elephant sitting in the Mutant Sounds room for a while now, though the extent of its damage has until now meant that I've been unwilling and unable to confront it in all its magnitude before today. And that thing that must be confronted is this: while the Megaupload shutdown may have gotten all the press attention, Rapidshare's semi-recent decision to eliminate all files from their servers that were either unconnected to a paid account or from someone not signed in to their system (as per their current requirements) has created far more catastrophic damage for Mutant Sounds that what happened with Megaupload. It has in fact wiped close to 1200 titles from our blog, between the removal of many early files from a period when I was less than fastidious about remaining a member of Rapidshare and their interconnected elimination of all rapidshare links created by third party file-spreaders like Sharebee. It's taken me three consistent ten hour days of work to sift through the entirety of Mutant Sounds and figure out how many links are down, but I now have a final tally (1196 files; 813 of mine, 386 of Jim's) and a master list of all those files that are now gone from their system. Complicating matters, much of my collection is currently boxed up and/or in storage in preparation for a move.

my plan of attack is this: over the next few days, I'll be tooth-combing my way through both my own (admitted all over the place) files and those of my bandmate Matt from VDO to figure out everything we do have directly on hand to begin re-uploading. For the albums that don't prove to be directly accessible right now (read: from albums/tapes/CD's/CDR's that are currently boxed up and/or in storage), I'll be putting out a list of those titles to download once my sifting is done, so that, should you be so kind as to want to offer help in re-uploading titles, you can at that point.

This is surely a huge undertaking and an obvious setback for the blog, but Mutant will still be soldiering on regardless. Thanks to one and all for sticking by us for all these years…

27 comments:

Robert Nowhere said...

i love it how other bloggers fold in the face of adversity and you lot just keep soldiering on! truly appreciating your ballsiness too! \m/\m/

Darryl Whalen said...


fuck!!!

no one said life was supposed to be easy.

thank you and i love you for what you do.

Anonymous said...

Huge respect and thanks for, as you say, soldiering on. Your treasure trove of otherwise-unavailable material keeps alive the work of a lot of forgotten or neglected musicians. More power to your elbow!

Dendroctonus said...

Your dedication is admirable to say the least. The work you have and continue to put in is very much appreciated from this end. Glad to see the blog still kicking even with these issues.

gilhodges said...

Thanking us for "sticking by you" is like thanking us for continuing to breath. Your contributions to the universe of free and unfettered cultural exchange are as vital as they are legendary. The impact of your efforts extends beyond the cumulative acts of generosity here at MS as I believe other bloggers receive their inspiration to "soldier on" from your example.

So, um, thank YOU.

Anonymous said...

your efforts are much appreciated!

keep up the great work, guys.

MS4LYFE

Goofy said...

Hi!
Thanks for a great blog! I found this a couple of weeks ago and I have been pretty busy here ever since.
Anyway, I found this pretty interesting comment on WFMU: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/09/mining-the-audio-motherlode-volume-182.html#more

It's worth checking.

Unknown said...

This is an outrageous crime against culture! Good to hear you are carrying on, 'cus if Mutant Sounds goes down we all do! Nick (Die or DIY?)

DanP said...

Your colossal persistence is...pretty colossal! And appreciated.

Anonymous said...

You aint no cry baby, datz fer shure! GOOD ON YA...it be fun!! Thanks bub! `big wheel keep on turnin...`
Best,
MACH1

Girtus Kiltasov said...

keep on keeping on! we appreciate your fight; maybe the ones that have dl'ed from him can contribute some of the efforts to re-uploading as well...

thanks for the great music regardless

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU GRAZIAZ

Vincenzo "Mercenario" said...

Respect !
If there's any way that I could help you, don't hesitate to contact me!

Keep the Mutants !
Vincenzo
[https://www.facebook.com/vincenzo.mercmusic]

marmieladov@gmail.com said...

Hello folks;
i have a mediafire acc. and i would like to share, if there is a missing link, with you guys some albuns you have provided. I dont know how much ive downloaded here, maybe 10 albuns.

Erik Miletta

Anonymous said...

When will people realize we cannot depend on proprietary systems? Whether it's Facebook, MySpace, Blogger or Rapidshare, you put your trust on a system you have absolutely no control over!

I agree it really sucks but you shouldn't be surprised...

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/keep-control-of-your-computing.html

Anonymous said...

would not be where i am (musically speaking) without your efforts. kudos to keeping mutant sounds alive!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your amazing efforts and your willingness to carry on in the face of this massive setback.

Anonymous said...

thanks for your colossal work!!!!

Britches Barnaby said...

respect these years

Anonymous said...

How big would a torrent be of every album you have ever uploaded?

Mon'onc X said...

Hello,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for all the good stuff you shared over the past years.

I am very pissed off as well about what they did with your files on "their servers" as well.

My point was that you should have been aware of the stupid "cloud" trap, if you were only politically aware at all.

Then go ahead and trash my comment again if you will, but I hope next time you'll think before acting like a clueless victim...

Salaried Man Club said...

Brave fools! You're more worth the effort than you'll ever reckon.

TheNoiseMan said...

Just tell how I can help you. This blog is just awesome. Keep it that way! Let you my email: juanicotolengo@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Good on you, and best wishes for reuploading that huge amount of stuff...
Chris

Scary Lady Sarah said...

Thank you for all the hard work & dedication to keeping otherwise lost treasures alive.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the hard work and all the amazing alboums you shared with us!!!!Bill

Anonymous said...

People like you make music impossible to find anywhere in the planet accessible and forever lasting, artist posted here should be very grateful that their music has spread far and wide thanks to you, keep up, mutant is the mother of all blogs by far