Obtaining Music

Sources Available
There are a variety of sources available as to where you can obtain music, other than just moaning about it and begging people on /mu/. Here are few of the sources that are available at your fingertips

Normal Methods

 * Amazon
 * Bandcamp (Free/Name your price or paid)
 * Bleep
 * Boomkat
 * Discogs (New/Second hand)
 * iTunes
 * Play.com
 * Record Label Website

'Other' Methods

 * File Sharing/Direct Download Sites
 * 4shared
 * Bandcamp Download (Rips stream at 128kbps)
 * Billion Uploads
 * DepositFiles
 * Mediafire RIP
 * Megaupload RIP
 * Oh shit, we MEGA now
 * Rapidgator
 * Rapidshare
 * Soulseek
 * Zippyshare
 * Torrents
 * Rutracker
 * Waffles.fm
 * What.CD

File Sharing/Direct Download Sites
Using the regular file sharing sites such as mediafire and zippyshare is pretty self explanatory, though how to find them is not anymore, since google now restricts the results in regards to obtaining links for mediafire.

If you're looking for an album on, lets say, mediafire, your first port of call should be google, but instead of searching '[Album] Mediafire', you should be searching '[Album] Filestube'. Once you've done this, click on the appropriate filestube link and then look at the results for a mediafire link (or another file sharing site if you cant find a mediafire). Now click on the link and don't click on download, instead copy the URL underneath, in the box that says 'Direct links:' and paste this into your address bar. This link will be a working link for the album you're searching for.

If this method fails to work, as in there is no working link available via Filestube, then your next place to check should be /rs/. Search for the album by its full name and then by its initials, or any other possible title it might be uploaded under, if you still can't find a working link. The problem with /rs/ now is that a lot of people upload albums that are not named after the album, but are given nonsense names, to try and delay them being taken down. As a result of this, you should try searching the archives, to see if the album you're looking for has been shared in a sharethread. One thing you shouldn't do when searching for a link to an album is go around begging for one on /mu/.

As well as the methods listed above, there are a lot of blogs out there which share links to albums regularly. For a list of blogs, visit the Share Blogs section on the Discovering Music page.

Soulseek is the service out of the listed file sharing site which works differently. Soulseek offers the ability for people to enter a 'virtual room' and share files peer-to-peer personally with someone else, whilst being able to talk to them as well at the same time. A download link to the Soulseek client can be found here

Torrents
Torrents are something which I'm sure the average 4chan goer is quite familiar with, so I'll save you the talk on torrents themselves and talk about the services available. There are a variety of places to torrent music from. These include the more commonly known Isohunt and The Pirate Bay. Both of these are not advised, as the quality of the music available on there isn't of a good, or guaranteed, bitrate. You may wish to use these as a (very) last resort. The other two services available are What.CD and Rutracker.

What.CD
What.CD is an invite only private tracker. Invites can be acquired either from upstanding What users or by passing an interview process, though most What users will be unwilling to share an invite, since the inviter is held responsible for the actions of the invited. There are a variety of sources you can use to help you pass the interview. The most important of them is the What.CD Interview Preparation Site, which provides you with information on preparing for the interview, taking the interview, and what to do after the interview. Another useful website for information on What.CD is Hydrogenaudio Wiki.Once you have passed the interview and entered What.CD, there is an extensive and well-maintained catalog of music, though you need to maintain a ratio to stay a member, obviously. Further instructions on what to do on What.CD once you're a member can be found here.

Rutracker
Rutracker is another tracker website, though there isn't any sort of test to enter Rutracker like on What.CD. All you have to do is make an account, though the fact that the website is in russian doesn't make it easy, which is why you can use the guide provided on this wiki to sign up. Most of the stuff on Rutracker is stuff directly taken from What.CD, so its good quality for the most part. There are plently of discographies available in both lossless and lossy codecs, and new releases are often uploaded shortly after the release. Everything is tagged in English, with a good post standard maintained regarding information about the music available. Though no ratio is forced to be maintained, keeping a good ratio on Rutracker can help in the obtaining of an invite to What.CD and other private trackers.