In the pre-Spotify era, one of the main ways to discover music was through MP3 blogs. In fact, some of us spent a lot of time burrowing through these obscure blogs, hoping to find and obtain rare vinyl rips and mindblowing '70s Japanese prog. But in the past several years, huge changes have occurred to change that landscape. File sharing services such as MegaUpload and Rapidshare went supernova on their own clientele, leaving many blogs deserted graveyards of links galore. Bloggers ran out of the patience to re-upload huge collections of music for the umpteenth time. Kim Dotcom went broke. Several places proclaimed "R.I.P." on these blogs, fearing the proliferation of obscure music would have to end up behind closed doors. Yet some of these blogs remain, with people still plugging away at them, not to mention there’s new sites to carry on the never-ending battle of providing a well-curated collection privy to copyright infringement takedown notices.
Here’s a brief look into some fantastic resources.
Buffalo Tones
What: Buffalo Tones is the equivalent of the cool older sister who pops in from time to time to teach you something new. It’s a master collection with everything you can find off the beaten and bizarre path: garage, no wave, post-punk, psych and noise music. After years of inactivity, this blog made a return with sporadic updates.
Why: It is home to over 200 releases, often accompanied by good write-ups on each one. Blogs hosted on Blogspot tend to incorporate throwback features such as live comment boxes and sidebars featuring other sites you need to check out. Buffalo Tones outdoes a few of these by having a list of blogs complete with a thumbnail of its most recent post.
Frustration Levels While Downloading: Low. In fact, there’s a joy to be found in discovering that ancient links still work. Evidently, we have yet to robbed of the things we (will learn to) cherish the most.
Ghost Capital
What: Described as an "effort to share...rare, oddball and under-appreciated music of all kinds," the ear of Ghost Capital is pointed towards the obscure and the global: psych, blues, folk, funk and more from all corners of the globe make appearances here alongside several well-curated mixes.
Why: It’s incredibly niche, which is a great thing considering the amount of care that goes into each update with detailed notes to match. The site is well-maintained, easily one of the best looking blogs with its standout design. Also a plus needs to be given to anyone willing to upload 320kpbs quality mp3s only to do it again in FLAC.
Frustration Levels While Downloading: Low. Nonexistent, likely. There are FLAC downloads, y’all.
Sophie’s Floorboards
What: A fantastic collection of punk music, ranging from screamo to post-hardcore to pop-punk along with any other notable releases that can somehow shoehorn themselves into the canon. If this blog appeals to your listening tastes then you’ll make no qualms as to how Death Grips are on there or how Sunny Day Real Estate or Texas Is the Reason belong next to entries about Jawbreaker and Touché Amoré. It just makes sense.
Why: What Sophie’s Floorboards excel at is providing a fantastic point of reference for people looking to get themselves started along with shining a light on lesser-known bands. They also get points for providing Jawbreaker demos.
Frustration Levels While Downloading: Low
Exystence
What: Exystence aims for a comprehensive approach—updating daily with tons of jazz, indie rock, electronica, blues, folk and soul with an emphasis on reissues and box sets of older releases.
Why: Exystence is an ambitious library—with tons of new links being added every day, they are privy to a ton of content that would be much harder to host elsewhere and the interface is one that works better than your standard Blogspot template. They do have a lovely fixation on box sets that when coupled with their terrible choice in file storage providers, makes you want to cry while staring at the details for a complete set of vintage jazz recordings. They also don’t house links older than a few months, either, so get them while you can.
Frustration Levels While Downloading: High. Very High. But push through. You can do it.
Old-School Hip-Hop Tapes
What: A collection of live rap shows and radio mixes, going as far back as 1977. The blog also features documentaries and archived news stories on the history of rap.
Why: It’s an illuminating look into an integral part of hip-hop culture that goes unnoticed by many. At this time, it’s one of the few archives of its kind. Current hip-hop culture is primed for accessibility but it’s a lot harder to find historical documents such as these.
Frustration Levels While Downloading: There are tons of broken links and the blog is a mess to look at, yet their constant updates (majority of it consisting of requests for popular tapes) and help make these offenses worth forgiving.