Tuesday, October 21, 2008

kraytracker.com

I would like to talk about a website that I use, called Kraytracker.com. As you can probably tell from the name, Kraytracker.com is a torrent tracker community, such as the Pirate Bay, Torrentportal, and others. While these types of sites are seen as internet dens of inequity, Kraytracker.com offers the music enthusiast something different. Kraytracker is a tight, secretive community. Users must be invited by another user, and invites are only open for a small period each year. I would post a link, but you would only be able to see the login page. Nonusers can’t even explore the site. This in itself is a safeguard for its users, because the registration simply cannot be obtained. Kraytracker.com also has this important tool called the “Kraydar”. Kraydar is a database of albums flagged as unsafe for upload, and includes, but certainly is not limited to, any artist represented by the RIAA. Users cannot upload such albums, or they will receive a permanent ban (and becoming re-instated could take months). The result is a tracker community consisting of independent artists, and unconventional music that could never be found on a large, open community such as The Pirate Bay. Kraytracker.com is a safe community in which punk, ska, reggae, rap, emo, and even things such as techno and dance enthusiasts can find music they like. I have downloaded hundreds of albums from this site, and several have led to purchases from bands I particularly enjoy. Kraytracker.com is a website that provides many of these artists something they could almost never achieve: exposure.

3 comments:

ervolsen said...

Hey so how would you compare the amount of stuff that kraytracker has, compared to Pirate Bay? Sounds a little bit like Deminoid (the whole 'exclusive' aspect of it)

Another thing is, I've tried to use torrents here but it doesn't work (I hear the school blocks torrents) - Have you had the same problem?

patrick morrison said...

kray really doesn't have a huge amount of torrents, but for the users it seems to be plenty. you can always go to the pirate bay for more mainstream music, but kray is for small, independent bands. If i had to guess, i'd say about 2000 torrents. I've downloaded a handful of torrents here. its just very slow

ervolsen said...

Yea its painfully slow. Even with a small torrent with a good amount of seeders - I literally could not get past 0.1%. So frustrating.. The internet at my dorm also cuts off every 2 hours so that makes things worse.