wow. and to think that rolling stone magazine used to support the counterculture in america, some 30+ years ago. i guess the 70’s and the 80’s jaded them senseless. oh well.
viva la musica revolution!

The music industry makes me a sad panda

Amazing that the Riaa just doesn’t get it. Think about it. We listen to music from bands we might not buy a cd from. Yet, if you like it, and you hear they might be in concert someplace near you, you;d go to it. So tell me, where’s the loss of revenue? Take this all away, and then watch the loss of revenue. Rolling stone is supported by the music industry revenues and adds. They have lost touch with the group that made RS popular in the first place. Give it time though, and I would bet, RS will soon be locking their doors. GOOD RIDENCE

That’s it, I’m cancelling my subscription to Rolling Stone! I’ll also be cancelling my subscriptions to Spin, Alternative Press, Esquire and Jugs magazines too. Thanks a lot Rolling Stone!

I wonder how long it will be before they take down all these comments due to “bad press”. Having never actually bought a Rolling Stone magazine, I think it’s fair to say I never will at this point. I think I can find much better sources for music elsewhere.

OiNK was amazing because of the community. If I wanted to listen to The Hives I could have that CD in minutes from over a hundred torrent sites. I can’t even -find- Bel Canto or Big Black in any record store, let alone buy it. OiNK was a pleasure because I discovered old, out of print music that I love.

Thanks a whole fucking lot, RIAA.

I never used oink, but I do not see how the owner of a torrent site can be charged when the users are actually breaking the law. There’s no law against being a poor moderator.

It would be nice if RS could give some facts to back up assertions. Nothing you’ve said about OiNK is new, and its lazy journalism to repackage the corporate message. Maybe you’ve forgotten that Music and Making Money are actually different things!

OiNK FOreVer!

OiNK FOreVer!

Are you fucking serious? Doesn’t Rolling Stone at least delve a little bit into music? The very fact that they mentioned the new Hives album as a reason to go to Oink should be very indicative of how irrelevant this magazine is.

Oink was THE place for obscure, underground, and out of print records. If I wanted to go get a Hives album then of course I could go to any of the hundreds other torrent websites. If, however, I wanted to get a Big Black album, or a Captain Beefheart album, maybe Tom Waits’ debut, Pere Ubu, or even Buzzcocks’ Singles Goin Steady, Oink was the place.

I will be hard placed to find in any record shop within a day’s drive of Houston, Texas that has some of the stuff I could find on Oink. I can’t believe how easily my musical tastes have outstripped musical critics such as those employed on Rolling Stones’ own staff. This is ridiculous.

It’s a sad day for music lovers, all who had Oink as a resource to discover new music and supplement and enrich their tastes.

hey rs go eat a big pile of the shit that the industry shovels onto your pages. Viva la Oink and fuck these capitalist jerkoffs. Hey is this all one post or is it between advertisements?

Rolling Stone: Blow me.

why should go out and buy La Cucharacha when I have plenty of them already running around in my apartment for free? jeez.

I bought La Cucaracha on Tuesday, I wanted to wait till then to hear it so I didn’t bother downloading it.

Like the Hydra, if you cut off one head, two more spring up in it’s place. Next time they’ll move the server to Russia.

If your looking for some alternatives to Oink, try;

http://blog.buttermouth. com/2006/10/undiscovered-ways- to-get-free-music.html

I downloaded Ween’s “La Cucaracha” from OINK about two weeks ago. Bought it in the store on its release date this Tuesday. Big fan like me got to hear the album sooner. Local record makes money. Band makes money. Rounder Records makes money. Sounds like a win all the way around. I have also downloaded pre-release albums from OINK, didn’t like them, deleted the files, and didn’t buy the CD when it came out.

I used to use Oink, I remember finding a lot of albums that I couldn’t find anywhere else; and by anywhere else I mean record stores. Where I used to live many of the other chains left after a Borders moved in; leaving me with little options. Furthermore, I see nothing wrong with downloading an out-of-print record, for which the band isn’t going to get any money at all–nor do I feel bad downloading the works of an artist who’s long since dead, and who’s family is disconnected from him (or the money’s just going to the label somehow, not the artists). Oink was good because of its diversity, because it pointed towards good quality releases that people wanted. I still buy CDs and DVDs and go to shows and buy merch–I think paying more than twice the worth of a CD entails me to download something; because I’m spending even more money on them than I normally would. Its sad to see that people can’t understand the logic of trying something out before you buy it; to see if its worth it.

Never mind pirating songs from P2P sites. It’s time we start pirating Rolling Stone magazines from magazine stands and bookstores dammit! Don’t buy RS anymore. Go to your nearest Barnes & Noble or any bookstore or kiosk, grab an RS magazine and start browsing and reading the articles there. When you’re done put it back on the shelf or stash it in your back pack without buying the rag! We gotta teach this corporate zine not to mess with the consumer and stop siding with corporate America.

“artists make their money on touring and merchandising”

Yes, but I read that the record companies are losing so much money, they’re insisting on deals with new bands that give them a cut of the T-Shirt and concert income.

So to sum up, the RIAA are the real bad guys. Really, really bad guys. They’re not used to not making enormous sums of money so they resort to stealing it from the bands’ pockets, not to mention single mothers and college kids.

This story doesn’t do anything but report that Oink got shut down (a little late) and point out that it got shut down for a reason (illegal record trade). So why all the vitriol?

i’m done with rolling stone.

Cmon in dear boy, have a cigar! you’re gonna go far! Now maybe those cocaine fueled industry parties will keep going! Gotta make sure the creativity of record company executives and industry moguls is rewarded! You know how much the artists love them. Welcome my son…welcome to the machine!

That Albini article is here :- http://www.negativland.com/alb ini.html

Well done Rolling Stone. You lost one more.

As many others have already mentioned, Oink was a place to find stuff that simply cannot be found anywhere else, to buy legally or otherwise, it was also a great place to discover new stuff. Like many others I have also bought music after downloading it illegally, I like to support music that I deem worth listening to, just as I have the right to refuse to pay in a resterant if my meal is served to me cold or if there was a spider in my lettuce, if it’s nice i’ll be sure to leave a tip.

The way things are it seems a select greedy few who have got away with stealing from the consumer for so long are looking at it in completely the wrong way, 1 download does not equal 1 lost sale, how many people downloading 10 albums a week would otherwise go out and buy 10 albums? Just doesn’t happen like that, in that respect I think the industry is shooting itself in the foot by alienating music fans.

The truth is if the major record labels (lets face it the small labels won’t be getting f.a from this) didn’t put out so much worthless rubbish at over the top prices it wouldn’t be such a problem.

sharing/trading music is what made mags like rolling stone exist. Oink was a music community not a bunch of thieves. You have to remember stealing isn’t what any bit torrent file sharing or any file sharing/copying is. Walking out with a CD from a CD shop isnt the same as downloading it off net. shop buys x cds at a price and if I take 1 he has lost x money + the profit, that is stealing. Copying/downloading a cd leaves the shop with his x and the ability to sell it for a profit. that is the difference, on top of that argument there is no way to prove that illegal downloads have cost music sales in anyway. Just because someone downloads an album doesnt mean that they would have bought it. good luck Oink

Most of the blessed ‘leaks’ were done on purpose by Record Companies to garner response to new product!

For heavens sake, the reporting of this enclosure has not only been dire it’s really drawn a line in the sand. I thought Rolling Stone was about music, not politics and stocks and shares. Subscription over.

Artists make their money from touring and merchandising. Fat, over fed Record Industry fools get rich from CD’s. Sharing is the way forward: it’s better for the Artist (free marketing), it’s better for the environment (no plastics used etc) and it’s better for the music lover as they don’t have to be swindled into paying for crap LP’s and the ones who’re good get my money via Live shows.

Balls to the BPI, RIAA and the man.

Long live freedom and Music.

keep in mind that the site was engaging in illegal activity so the bust shouldn’t come as a huge shock.

The legal status of torrent index sites is questionable; hardly as cut-and-dried as this. This isn’t Napster, remember.

As for anyone who’s shocked that Rolling Stone is taking the industry-line here, well, what do you expect? They’re a major part of the recording industry (or, at least, they used to be) - a strong recording industry is better for their bottom line, too. Labels buy ads, 180,000 people on Oink don’t.

First of all, that was an article that totally missed the point. Either way: What was one of the strongholds of OiNK was its ability to be a huge archive of unknown, hard-to-get music which you would have a hard time googling for samples/full length mp3s. An quick search on oink later, you could download EPs, albums or whatever and listen to it. Thats how I fell in love with a serious number of artists.

The effect OiNK had on me and many others: It made us buy cds. It made us want to pay plane tickets just to go see this and that artist/band/whatever perform. This is the real effect it had on us. What I hate about the mainstream media right now: They were not there, they do not know the story, of what it was about, what values it had. You can discuss and disagree all you want, OiNK and its users had and has values.

It was not so much about releasing and downloading the latest Hives or the latest Rihanna. Yeah, there were many people hopping on all the major band releases. That is not the identity of OiNK, though.

I miss the community so much right now. Im not paying 16 euro plus shipping for the debut album of this new band I just discovered on the internet. There is not much to go on, other than a couple mp3s I found on a rare blog. Not much info either. I bet an easy search on OiNK would have discovered a nicely tagged release right away. That might have turned me onto the band for real, and made me buy their cd somewhere down the line.

Either way. I believe this was the music industry shooting theirself in the foot.

And what about the lies and major wrongful information in media and from different police spokesmen? They are, if not bluntly lying, then atleast painting a fake picture of the reality. I hate that. Its so obivious for some one who were a part of the community to see what might be truthful and whats a real distortion of any truth.

Etc, etc. Blah blah. Anyhow, this was a very weak article.

This article sucks, Oink was a place where music lovers gathered, and discovered new music.
The Rolling Stone has halted because too much RIAA-moss grows on it, cancelling my subscription.
I think there should be a boycot lasting a week where no RIAA music is purchased, no RIAA concerts visited.

No evidence, no charges for regular users or mods. And the IFPI will probably use the next two months to consider wether it really wants to go to court over this. There is a fair chance that OiNK will be called legal, which would be a real blow to record companies.

Totally not the point…

There’s a distinct possibility that music sales have been down due to the massive amounts of regurgitated, prefabricated, overly-commercialized, copy-cat crap out there. The last decade has been the worst for new original music, with the exception of a handful of (older & newer) music artists and bands.

Nice comparisson to Darth Vader!
So in the future we will see RIAA take off their helmet and die, regretting all the evil things they’ve done in the past!

A sad thing happened but as stated before maybe something better will come of this , also pirate bay is trying to buy its own island to avoid this from happening www.thelocal.se/6076/20070112/

I’d like to add: If I’m paying money, 90% of it shouldn’t go to the record companies. They don’t do anything, as Radiohead just proved, a band with any kind of fan base can release and album and reap the benefits they deserve. I’d me even more inclined to buy albums than I am now if I knew the artist saw any of it.

While hardly a legal excuse I suppose, I find my reason for downloading albums in the past came from a couple of reasons: I’m a teenager, I’m poor. Why should I buy a cd without hearing it? This shouldnt be some sort of lottery, is it good? is it not? I don’t have the money to just throw down the drain on a new album by a band I liked previously that may or may not be good. Radiohead’s In Rainbows was a perfect example. I liked what I heard, so I bought as discbox, that’s how it works, I don’t have the money to gamble on potentially crappy new albums, the burden should be on the artist to produce something I actually want to own. I own tons of cds and even more vinyl, if a bands album is good, I buy it. Make me want to buy it, show me its worth my 15 dollars.

Yeah, I’m also canceling my subscription to rolling stone. It is totally covered with moss these days.

The music industry just doesn;t understand that those same 180,000 people telling friends about bands probably generated more revenue for the bands and the labels in the long run by spreading the good word about good acts than any ad in some irrelevant rock mag.

Wow. Way to lose another subscriber. canceling my account…3…2…1… now.

good riddance. nuff said

I will miss it very much so. I poured much hard earned money into the thieving record industry only to have a let down rate of a moderate 50%.
Oink had:
1. a better, broader music selection
2. great bit rates to choose from, ranging from 128 to lossless (WOW! Thanx for the measly 256 ITunes! 1.29 per 256 song? GREAT! do the math- MORE EXPENSIVE THAN A CD WITHOUT THE QUALITY YOU SLAVES!!!!!)
3. an amazing community of FRIENDS that would not corrupt each other by fucking their computers/music up with piss poor quality files that contained shitty viruses like limewire or kazaa or whatever you amateurs rely on.
Overall, I would rather STEAL the music I like from the stock holding pigs(irony) and pay the band to see them perform live and purchase their shirt/merch. Fuck the industry. fuck the haters. long live OiNK- and may something better rise from the ashes.
-ex-2year oinker eternally with a 1.65 ratio

Ahhh, Rolling Stone. Proving its irrelevance with each and every day. What did you expect for a supposed “music” magazine that puts Kid Rock on its cover?

i always bought most of my cds, and found way more music to love and buy on Oink. i am seriously considering refusing paying for music anymore. this is sickening, i can’t see how i can support an industry who keeps taking away places such as Oink which have no equivalent replacement.

You dont get to try an entire bottle of wine before you buy it do you? Why should you be able to listen to an entire record? And you pay more for the wine, and it is good for one use. And maybe people just might have something to learn from all those other songs the artist has put on the album… the ones you decided weren’t worth your money.

I was an oinker. I loved it. I learned a lot of new music through it. Illegal? Fuck yes. Any album, any piece of software, free and downloaded at breakneck speeds. That is not a supportable thing for any industry. I was a theif nothing less, and I have no qualms about it because the industry is just going to have to learn the hard way about protecting their product - that’s just where were at. But I can’t stand seeing all these ex-oinkers talk about how oink should be legal, or that it was legal in the first place. All the techno-loopholes aside there needs to be (and will be) a supportable media industry. Its a mess right now, and I don’t like the labels or DRM either but something’s gotta happen eventually. Now’s the chance to try and shape it for the better, god knows the record industry was shit before. Just read Steve Albini’s article from The Baffler…. Anyways, bye bye piggy.

“The operator of the site, a twenty-four-year-old man from Middlesborough, U.K., was arrested and will likely face so many charges, not even T.I. would want to switch places with him right now” I understand that the man has been recently released without being charged. Nice call.

R.I.P. As many comments here show, sites like Oink can be very useful to this industry if it could just get it’s head out of its ass for half a minute. I always believed that OiNK was simply a way to swap music with friends from all over, as long as you shared with them equally. I guess that’s a little too red for these fascists. Oh, and didn’t they just find cars packed with explosives all over the U.K.? Aren’t we engaged in a war on terror(ism) I guess that’s not as important.

Is this article for real? Rolling Stone sticking up for “the man”? Obviously this magazine has become so detached from what IS popular culture, that it has members of the RIAA writing articles for it now.

I’m just pissed that the last album that I downloaded from OINK was a Lionel Richie album

i would argue that oink was not an illegal site. the website simply connected people. its like an external database of your music library that people can search through and there is nothing wrong with that. granted, the intent of the site is to help people trade music illegally but i don’t know if that is the same as pirating music. users committed crimes but not the site itself.

Dear God. This article is so filled with shit, that I’m going to cancel my subscription ASAP.

If the music industry is so concerned with artist’s financial success, why is there a Recording Artists’ Coalition that is made up of some of the top names in the music industry? http://www.recordingartistscoa lition.com/index.php

Have any of these artists seen any money from the RIAA settlements with Kazaa? Nope. Not yet.

Furthermore, there really is no link between downloading and music sales.
A new study in the Journal of Political Economy by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the recording industry.

Entitled “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis,” the study matched an extensive sample of music downloads to American music sales data in order to search for causality between illicit downloading and album sales. Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe.
http://arstechnica.com/news.a rs/post/20070212-8813.html

Do n’t believe the hype!

La Cucharacha was ironically one of the last albums I got off of OiNK. I bought it yesterday as well, of course, since Ween is easily one of the best bands ever.

Tue, there are plenty more Torrent sites, but unfortunately I doubt any of them will ever be as strong as OiNK was.

I think I may have bought more CDs and went to more concerts after joining OiNK because of the large variety of music I was introduced to through it. It was a great community which will be nearly impossible to rebuild.

I doubt that all 180,000 of us will be charged. Possibly the mods and maybe the big time leakers if anyone.

Obviously Rolling Stone will become the new organ for the RIAA. Keep in mind, Rolling Stone is a company man to the bitter end.

I think that leaks are great. They give me the opportunity to listen to the music before I decide whether or not it’s worth buying.

OiNK got me into a lot of bands that I wouldn’t have gotten into otherwise. A lot of the content on there was out-of-print and hard to find releases. With the way that CDs sound nowadays (horrid), it was nice to be able to go online and get a good vinyl rip of whatever album. I’ll miss OiNK.

I’m going to keep buying music like I always do.

A very conservative and dismissive stance from a usually liberal and open-minded source.