Soulseek

Soulseek is a file-sharing application used mainly to exchange MP3 or Ogg Vorbis music files. It is unique amongst most of its peer-to-peer application peers, namely Kazaa, in that it is entirely spyware and adware free. It was created by Nir Arbel, a former Napster programmer. Like Napster did, it relies on a central server, which makes it vulnerable to being shut down by legal action. Originally, the Soulseek userbase was composed mostly of members of the IDM Mailing List. Therefore, the vast majority of music found on Soulseek was underground electronic music or music produced by the users themselves. However, after Audiogalaxy was shut down, a deluge of former Audiogalaxy faithfuls invaded Soulseek and brought with them corporate music owned by record labels belonging to the RIAA (though Soulseek is still a good place to find underground and independent music, as well as knowledgeable music lovers from anywhere). Since that time, the userbase has grown rapidly, and there are some ~120,000 users on at any given time. This may seem relatively small compared to such file sharing programs as Kazaa and Napster, but Soulseek is more of an underground project and is a smaller server-based p2p program. SoulSeek's server used to have a problem with crashing due to the CPU overload, but this problem has since been rectified. It is rare to see the server be down for extended periods of time. There are chat rooms set up by users to discuss the various types of files shared over the network. Most rooms are dedicated to musical styles or various world regions. For example, there are several Japanese music rooms, which have spawned a BitTorrent sharing group and an underground music room that tends to have the most users and focuses on less-popular music. Some unique features (starting as of Version 154 beta build 3j) include searching for files within a room (which is much more effective than a network search) and setting a ticker. Longtime features include a friends list and sharing privileges for said friends. Many of the original Soulseek users are also music producers. Due to this fact, it was only natural for them to take their community spirit one step further and form a record label. Soulseek Records was formed in 2002.

See also

External links

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
banat
haribo
arges county
carlsten
country house
antsiranana
hms royal oak
gedcom
pennyweight
montrose, angus
turkish republic of northern cyprus
mario andretti
computational neuroscience
minority government
winnetka
shake
sofa vergara
wayland
chesil beach
gereby
schwansen
lipovan
radama ii of madagascar
rasoherina of madagascar
fullers' london pride
ranavalona ii of madagascar
south west coast path
ranavalona iii of madagascar
angeln
thomas hart benton
terence o'neill
it (1927 film)
it (novel)
it (pronoun)
gerard collins
outliner
stellvia of the universe
golden horseshoe (ontario)
mangaka
conversations with god
jimmy pattison
vince lombardi trophy
brevet
clodagh rodgers