What are your go-to sources for obtaining older music releases?

[radiofan]

This follows on from an interesting discussion that we've been having on another topic.

So - some background. I'm only interested in a very limited subset of older MP3 releases, which as a result means that I'm not able to directly help anyone else here if they ask for a release that I don't currently have. Over the last year that I've been here, one of the things that I've noticed is that members have been really helpful at obtaining/sharing releases that presumably they don't all have downloaded at the time.

So - my question. What are your go-to sources for obtaining these releases when you see a request here that you'd like to fill for somebody else? Whilst I obviously understand that it may not be possible to be specific (in the case of private FTP archives, etc.) are there any other public sources from where releases can be found? More specifically, I'm referring to older releases that can't be found on newer release blog/sites. Below are the sources that I'm aware of:

Usenet (useful for releases posted in the last 12 years or so)

0daymusic (for both newer and older releases)

Thanks.

[Draven]

For my part, I start with my own archive, although not very impressive, it has happened on occasion that I find requests for some members of this forum.

Then my private torrent trackers. Here again, torrents are a good source, but often less recent and less popular music is very poorly represented.

And, there are the newsgroups. Again, without a good quality indexer, it will be very difficult for you to find anything due to the files being obfuscated.

Then there are the FTP servers (private or not), which can be of great help, especially for slightly older requests (10 years and older). I imagine private servers have a lot more content than public servers, on this point, I can't comment, I don't know any public servers (I don't consider Pay To Leech servers (0daymusic and the like) to be public servers).

There is also Direct Connect (DC or DC++) but again, if you are not a member of a private hub, it may be more difficult to find what you are looking for.

And finally, in no particular order of priority, MiRC, Soulseek, eMule ... all other sharing software, paired with [External Link Removed for Guests], can also be a great source of content.

There you go, maybe I'm forgetting some, but basically it looks like this. It's a lot of information but again when looking for something very specific, it can take a lot of time and effort. It is for this reason that I agree with Gradvill when he says he will no longer help those who do not thank. Indeed, some of my uploads to Euphoric Vocals required considerable time and effort. So not receiving any help or thanks in return can be very frustrating.

[radiofan]

Cool - thank you. So as mentioned in the other topic around why members request particular releases, it sounds like private FTP servers and DC hubs are the two most reliable methods of attempting to obtain old files. So out of interest - with 0daymusic, would you say that this isn't private (literally because it had a website and in theory anyone can create an account there)?

[Draven]

They seems to advertise. Often, for a particular release, they pop out first on Google search. Of course, it's not private. 0daymusic is P2L (Pay-To-Leech). And in the filesharing world, this kind of service doesn't really have a good reputation. Personally, I find it rather disturbing to monetize something you haven't paid for. You won't find good quality hub and good quality FTP server using Google or Bing. It's the word of mouth. That's why I say in a previous post, it's not necessarily what you know but WHO you know. And unfortunately, only time can succeed in building a trustworthy network of good sources. Being at the right place at the right time can also help. But sharing is caring. You have to keep that attitude. Like anything in life, knowledge must be shared. I used to be that guy who kept his knowledge to himself rather than sharing it. Fortunately, the older I get, the more this annoying habit seems to want to disappear. I really don't know much in life but if we all share these "not-much" between each other, that's how we evolve.

[Gradvill]

Anyone who uses Usenet needs a good search engine. I use a trial search in the Usenet Explorer program - it finds many rare releases.

Private Hubs (DC) are the best place to find rare material. For me personally.

Private torrent trackers, eMule, SoulseekQt - must be on your list to find material.

[aGGyunit]

And in the filesharing world, this kind of service doesn't really have a good reputation. Personally, I find it rather disturbing to monetize something you haven't paid for.

While I agree that pay to download is frowned upon in the file-sharing world. Times have changed since the very beginning.
Do you think 0daymusic should have free leech on his archive?
Can you even imagine how long it would have taken to collect all that, let alone store and maintain it?

Hats off to him for having an insanely large collection, including the most random releases.
If he turned it into a business, good on him.

Just like newsgroups, seedboxes (torrents) and premium file hosts, you don't need to pay, but you won't be using them.
For some people their time is more important than 10-20$ a month for whatever service they pay for.

That's how I look at things.

[lee520hmc]

0daymusic purchased an FTP account, it is totally unusable, the download speed is still slow, I bought more than 100G, not even one, it is not recommended to buy

[JeremyAcosta83]

I bring this topic up since I want to ask if somebody has been able to purchase a 0daymusic account recently?

Paypal has not been working since ages (I suspect they cut the account given the "sensible nature" of the goods provided), Skrill and Neteller have been removed (due do same possible reason), Webmoney is accepting only russian credit cards, Bitcoins for me are out of question and Perfect Money does not accept credit cards at all.