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For a minute there I thought what.cd was back. I miss that site; it wasn't really a "private torrent tracker", it was a music community. I discovered entire ge

For a minute there I thought what.cd was back. I miss that site; it wasn't really a "private torrent tracker", it was a music community. I discovered entire genres of music I never knew existed on what.cd. Spotify is what.cd's mentally handicapped little brother in comparison.

TheAceOfHearts 4y ago
I discovered a ton of great music thanks to Staff Picks. Spotify recommendations are good sometimes but it really lacks the strong sense of community. There's no personal touch to Spotify recommendations.
- frenchie4111 4y ago
  Staff picks still make up a huge % of my personal listening
  - kyo3 4y ago
    Same here, most of my musical taste stems from their picks in some form or another.
- z3c0 4y ago
  Spotify is a fantastic service hidden behind an increasingly unusable interface.
- Beltalowda 4y ago
  The problem with recommendation systems is that they're overwhelmingly based on what you already know. I'm not really interested in that much of the time; there's lots of music that I "should" like based on liking similar things but that just doesn't "jibe" with me, and vice versa. And for entire new things it tends to gravitate towards the more popular "classic $genre" stuff within a genre. That doesn't mean it's bad music, but a jazz playlist with John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong isn't really very interesting, nor is a metal playlist with Metallica and Iron Maiden. The thing that what.cd offered was that you could discover things beyond that. And all of this is so subjective in the first place. I recently watched all of the Alien films, and I felt the third Alien film is the second-best (after the original), but the "rating sites" have it listed as the lowest-rated of all of them. I'm probably not the only one who likes the film more than the ratings would suggest, and this kind of stuff gets lost in these algorithmic recommendation systems.
- vonseel 4y ago
  I feel Spotify recommendations are pretty good for my account, but homogenous. They tend to stick the same type of music I’ve been listening to recently and it gets bland after a while.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  Trevor Something - Death Dream
shric 4y ago
redacted.ch
- XiS 4y ago
  Pale in comparison
  - some-guy 4y ago
    It did pale in comparison at first, but it has become a large and dedicated community on its own. Torrents, staff picks, collages, are all there and plentiful.
    - rOOb85 4y ago
      The people are great too. I went on their irc and mentioned how shocked I was I couldn't find a certain album by a random band. A user there asked which one it was and it took 90 seconds from the time I said the band/album to the user posting the torrent link. I had looked everywhere online and I didn't find the album. I'm a salty pirate who's been at sea for decades and I couldn't find this album. Then this user not only finds it in flac, but is able to create a torrent, upload it and shared it in under 90 seconds. It still boggles my mind how he pulled it off. I don't believe in magic, but this was magical lol
      - vonseel 4y ago
        I wish I could meet that guy and befriend him or her :). These are the people I would love to chat with. Sadly, I’m not a member of redacted. Maybe I should try to get in.
      - throwaway0x7E6 4y ago
        are you on there? there's an album I couldn't find anywhere, I'm curious if that tracker has it
  - xoac 4y ago
    People don't participate as much, but we can change that... with participation.
lwansbrough 4y ago
Spotify is definitely not tuned for discovery. Thankfully, https://everynoise.com https://everynoise.com exists, which is what I use when I'm trying to find something different.
- sph 4y ago
  Every few years I rediscover this website. Thanks, it was about time for me to try something new.
- RugnirViking 4y ago
  interesting. Has some flaws when I search for certain artists (nekrogoblikon definitely isn't folk metal or viking metal etc) but overall pretty fun to explore.

TheAceOfHearts 4y ago

I discovered a ton of great music thanks to Staff Picks. Spotify recommendations are good sometimes but it really lacks the strong sense of community. There's no personal touch to Spotify recommendations.

frenchie4111 4y ago
Staff picks still make up a huge % of my personal listening
- kyo3 4y ago
  Same here, most of my musical taste stems from their picks in some form or another.
z3c0 4y ago
Spotify is a fantastic service hidden behind an increasingly unusable interface.
Beltalowda 4y ago
The problem with recommendation systems is that they're overwhelmingly based on what you already know. I'm not really interested in that much of the time; there's lots of music that I "should" like based on liking similar things but that just doesn't "jibe" with me, and vice versa. And for entire new things it tends to gravitate towards the more popular "classic $genre" stuff within a genre. That doesn't mean it's bad music, but a jazz playlist with John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong isn't really very interesting, nor is a metal playlist with Metallica and Iron Maiden. The thing that what.cd offered was that you could discover things beyond that. And all of this is so subjective in the first place. I recently watched all of the Alien films, and I felt the third Alien film is the second-best (after the original), but the "rating sites" have it listed as the lowest-rated of all of them. I'm probably not the only one who likes the film more than the ratings would suggest, and this kind of stuff gets lost in these algorithmic recommendation systems.
vonseel 4y ago
I feel Spotify recommendations are pretty good for my account, but homogenous. They tend to stick the same type of music I’ve been listening to recently and it gets bland after a while.
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
Trevor Something - Death Dream

shric 4y ago

redacted.ch

XiS 4y ago
Pale in comparison
- some-guy 4y ago
  It did pale in comparison at first, but it has become a large and dedicated community on its own. Torrents, staff picks, collages, are all there and plentiful.
  - rOOb85 4y ago
    The people are great too. I went on their irc and mentioned how shocked I was I couldn't find a certain album by a random band. A user there asked which one it was and it took 90 seconds from the time I said the band/album to the user posting the torrent link. I had looked everywhere online and I didn't find the album. I'm a salty pirate who's been at sea for decades and I couldn't find this album. Then this user not only finds it in flac, but is able to create a torrent, upload it and shared it in under 90 seconds. It still boggles my mind how he pulled it off. I don't believe in magic, but this was magical lol
    - vonseel 4y ago
      I wish I could meet that guy and befriend him or her :). These are the people I would love to chat with. Sadly, I’m not a member of redacted. Maybe I should try to get in.
    - throwaway0x7E6 4y ago
      are you on there? there's an album I couldn't find anywhere, I'm curious if that tracker has it
- xoac 4y ago
  People don't participate as much, but we can change that... with participation.

lwansbrough 4y ago

Spotify is definitely not tuned for discovery. Thankfully, https://everynoise.com https://everynoise.com exists, which is what I use when I'm trying to find something different.

sph 4y ago
Every few years I rediscover this website. Thanks, it was about time for me to try something new.
RugnirViking 4y ago
interesting. Has some flaws when I search for certain artists (nekrogoblikon definitely isn't folk metal or viking metal etc) but overall pretty fun to explore.