I mean this without hyperbole. Loseing what.cd was one of the saddest moments of my life. Losing it was on a tier below the burning of the library of alexandria, but only a single tier.
Yes I sure did. That album may have been a vanity house "staff pick" too, I don't recall. Pink and What felt like magical places... Terra Firma, what a massive tune. https://youtu.be/HwbVnFR-XP4
Redacted hasn't quite rebuilt What.CD's full library, but it's getting remarkably close. Streaming services have taken some of the vigor out of the torrent scene, but I think it's safe to say What's all-music-archive dream is alive.
It might be a little late now, but in the early days, they seemed more than happy to have former What.CD users (provided they were in good standing) on board. There was an interview, but it wasn't a big deal.
too bad nothing like oink exists anymore, I remember being an early uploader of some interpol albums.
Also people just had great music tastes, you could go to any genre and sort and find heavy hitters you didnt know, who were amazing.
what.cd was one the most incredible archive of music ever created, happily spent £10/mo on a seedbox to support it and had a bunch of scripts to auto-seed things to get some sort of ridiculous ratio.
The powers that be truly did destroy something great, if there's a tracker that's anything like it I'd happily rent a seedbox again.
Even now most music streaming services will only give you a single crummy option of the album version to listen to, usually some stupid remaster, AM sometimes gives lets you listen to the original but it's far from perfect.