As an avid user of the internet and even bigger music enthusiast. It’s easy for one like me to figure out new and efficient and (free) ways to get my music online. Back in the day was Napster and then Limewire. When the word got out that these sites may not be *gasp* FREE anymore, leave it to the computer geeks of the world to engineer new ways to P2P.
One word. Torrents.
Oink.cd was one of the biggest online communities to talk, recommend, and ultimately to it’s demise, share music.
This blog sums up nicely exactly what Oink was, it’s purpose, and what we all as members of the community thought of Oink and online music sharing.
Which is why Oink was so great – take away all the rules and legal ties, all the ownership and profit margins, and naturally, the result is something purely for, by, and in service of the music fan. And it actually helps musicians – file-sharing is “the greatest marketing tool ever to come along for the music industry.” One of Oink’s best features was how it allowed users to connect similar artists, and to see what people who liked a certain band also liked. Similar to Amazon’s recommendation system, it was possible to spend hours discovering new bands on Oink, and that’s what many of its users did. Through sites like Oink, the amount and variety of music I listen to has skyrocketed, opening me up to hundreds of artists I never would have experienced otherwise. I’m now fans of their music, and I may not have bought their CDs, but I would have never bought their CD anyway, because I would have never heard of them! And now that I have heard of them, I go to their concerts, and I talk them up to my friends, and give my friends the music to listen to for themselves, so they can go to the concerts, and tell their friends, and so on. Oink was a network of music lovers sharing and discovering music.
Oink was probably one of the best communities I’ve ever belonged to online. What a shame. Wake up, RIAA.