A Metric Buttload of Music October 11, 2010 7:36 PM   Subscribe

As a followup to not_on_display's requesting a way to download all of the Metafilter Music songs last month: a torrent is now available.

The previous Metatalk thread is now closed. I'm posting on Music because it's fitting & future updates can go there; I'm posting on Metatalk to get the word out.
posted by Pronoiac to MetaFilter-Related at 7:36 PM (74 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite

Damn, dude. That's a lot of music. Thanks for doing the legwork.
posted by phunniemee at 7:39 PM on October 11, 2010 [1 favorite]


What phunniemee said about the legwork -- Pronoiac walked me through tons of command lines over the course of a week so I could sync my MeFiMu files up to his files and give the torrent a bigger seed. (I hope my end is finally working!)

HURRAH FOR PRONOIAC!

HURRAH TO ALL THE MUSICIANS WHO RECORDED ALL THESE SONGS!

posted by not_on_display at 7:49 PM on October 11, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is blowing out all my stimulation limits. (In the best way possible.)
posted by carsonb at 8:04 PM on October 11, 2010


Heh. Uploading now is easy! As for syncing with fellow James/Jim not_on_display: I think we got up to Plan H or so on that! And it could have been worse: if you'd been running Windows *shudder*, it would've been simpler to start from scratch.

Enjoy the music everybody!
posted by Pronoiac at 8:17 PM on October 11, 2010


Thank you.
posted by vidur at 9:03 PM on October 11, 2010


[head asplodes]

I will be grabbing this from work tomorrow (bigger pipes.) Since you played with scripts to do this, does this mean you'll be releasing a torrent each month?

a fellah can hope

In a perfect world (this is NOT a pony request) a cheesy speech synthesizer would announce each track's title and author...sometimes technology isn't advanced enough.
posted by davejay at 9:13 PM on October 11, 2010


Freakin. Awesome.

I asked this in the music thread, but I'll ask it again here. I'm pretty anal about my file names. Does anyone know how I can rename the files and still seed? I did it before in utorrent but I can't get it work now.
posted by theichibun at 9:19 PM on October 11, 2010


You run a torrent protocol from work?
The mind boggles.
What do you do?
posted by joost de vries at 10:12 PM on October 11, 2010


joost de vries, I could tell you, but then I'd have to.. *puts on sunglasses* .. terminate your connection.
posted by vidur at 10:41 PM on October 11, 2010 [3 favorites]


Many network admins have unrestricted internet access. Because they can.
posted by pracowity at 11:49 PM on October 11, 2010 [2 favorites]


not_on_display: (I hope my end is finally working!)

I'd hoped to push out a full copy by the end of the month, & that might happen by the end of the week, so, yes, actually, you're kicking ass.


davejay: Since you played with scripts to do this, does this mean you'll be releasing a torrent each month?

That's part of what I meant by "future updates," with the obvious caveat of "if this goes well, anyway," & this is off to a fine start. *crosses fingers*


In a perfect world (this is NOT a pony request) a cheesy speech synthesizer would announce each track's title and author...sometimes technology isn't advanced enough.

After reading the ecstatic interaction between a blind man & his iPhone, well, VoiceOver might let you do that.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:15 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Downloading from 3 of 3 peers, DL:91.7 KB/s, UL: 0.0 KB/s.
1.31 GB of 22.4GB (5.86%) - 2 days 7 hr remaining.

3 out of 3? Come on people, we need your enpeeration.
posted by Dr. Curare at 1:05 AM on October 12, 2010


22.4 GB is too big. Maybe someone could make a smaller greatest hits torrent based on Most Playlisted Tracks or Most Favorited Tracks data? For the cover, we just need Matt naked and covered in Cheez Whiz.
posted by pracowity at 1:44 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]



22.4 GB is too big.

yeah, especially when Etisalat is going to hit you with their "Fair Use" policy even though you've signed up for unlimited internet access. (sorry, was this not the thread wherein I rant about the horrendous service the ONLY ISP in Abu Dhabi provides?)
posted by bardophile at 3:20 AM on October 12, 2010


BITTORRENT IS KILLING THE MUSIC INDUS-
oh sorry wrong thread.

On topic: In Azarues/Vuze you can select only specific files in a torrent to download. So you could make select 0.5 or 1 GB worth of tracks, then next week/month grab the next section, etc?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:06 AM on October 12, 2010


make select = maybe select
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:07 AM on October 12, 2010


3 out of 3?

Big time! Straight to the top, baby! I'm going to be number one! *dons platform shoes and feather boa*



*sits, waiting*
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:52 AM on October 12, 2010


Seriously, though -- excellent work. I don't have that much spare disk space right now, but this is an awesome idea.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:53 AM on October 12, 2010


> a cheesy speech synthesizer would announce each track's title and author...sometimes technology isn't advanced enough.

Bah, do it yourself with flite and trivial shell scripting. My daily podcast is done entirely this way.
I wonder why I don't have many listeners?
posted by scruss at 5:06 AM on October 12, 2010


EndsOfInvention, I would suggest Transmission over Azarues/Vuze. It'll let you do what you want. Transmission is not as annoying either. I bailed on Azarues once it started installing browser plugins and messing with my search options.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:14 AM on October 12, 2010


Eh, I've been happy with Azareus for ages. Vuze changed a load of crap around (UI-wise) which was a bit annoying but I still have Azareus installed on my desktop. I never had any issues with browser plugins or search - the only interface it has with my browser is when I open a .torrent file anc tell Azareus to run it.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:23 AM on October 12, 2010


This is overwhelming! Thanks.
posted by OmieWise at 5:52 AM on October 12, 2010


How about a Hotline link? or AudioGalaxy?
(OOPS wrong decade)
posted by porn in the woods at 6:36 AM on October 12, 2010


I wish I would have seen this in the morning so I could have gotten it downloading during the day today. Anyway I have some extra room on my box so I can seed this at good speeds for a decent amount of time. Also I apoligize in advance to anyone who downloads and listens to the one song I uploaded to MeFiMu.
posted by burnmp3s at 7:48 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Overnight, I had seeded 18G or so of this. I have slowed down my stream during the day, though.
posted by not_on_display at 9:08 AM on October 12, 2010


Also I apoligize in advance to anyone who downloads and listens to the one song I uploaded to MeFiMu.

I recorded, like, 100 directly into my digital camera and then put an echo on it. You have nothing to apologize for.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:16 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


So how many different ways can we come up with to spell Azuruse?
posted by owtytrof at 9:21 AM on October 12, 2010


I am seeding it while i am away at work today. Only 46 more days!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:10 AM on October 12, 2010


Nearly 10G downloaded on this end, est. completion sometime tomorrow. Shouldn't be a problem for me to keep seeding for a while yet, but I'll have to cut back on the streaming porn. Oh well.
posted by carsonb at 11:01 AM on October 12, 2010


Burhanistan, have you ever tried to discern the urine on one of those low-bandwidth golden-shower sites, I mean, the individual drops are like huge yellow squares; it's... [looking around] ...like ...playing super mario? 8-bit? ya with me folks? errr... what!

aaaand I'll take this exit.

posted by not_on_display at 11:56 AM on October 12, 2010 [5 favorites]


Linux distros!
posted by Artw at 1:35 PM on October 12, 2010


Well, I'm trying to download it so I can seed it, but so far I'm not too far in.
posted by OmieWise at 3:50 PM on October 12, 2010


Anyone else getting "result is too large" errors?
posted by Dr. Curare at 5:54 PM on October 12, 2010


There are people out there over a third of the way through the download. If your download is slow, you might check that the appropriate port is open, or do the port forwarding necessary to make it so.

Dr. Curare: It sounds like your client doesn't deal with gigantic torrents. I'd suggest Transmission, though judging by my current connections, μtorrent & Vuze work too.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:10 PM on October 12, 2010


Anyone else getting "result is too large" errors?
Modesty forbids.
posted by joost de vries at 8:06 PM on October 12, 2010 [2 favorites]


Nice! Thanks for sacrificing for the greater good, guys!
posted by ignignokt at 8:45 PM on October 12, 2010


Okay I thought I was seeding but I'm just downloading the danged thing apparently. Just 20-ish more hours folks!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:55 PM on October 12, 2010


I am using transmission, I just spent half an hour looking at the forums and bug tracker and the most common answer is that is just happens sometimes with large torrents.
posted by Dr. Curare at 9:02 PM on October 12, 2010


I'm using utorrent and it's going ok except for the client's tendency to stomp all over my cheap router. It's a fairly painless install if you want to try a different client.
posted by Mitheral at 7:45 AM on October 13, 2010


Only six more hours! I love rural pseudo-broadband.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:03 PM on October 13, 2010


I'm done. It's great. Only uploading at around 5 when I was pulling in upwards to 600, but I blame that on you.

By the way Pronoiac, my wife hates you for giving me a way to get all of this scary music. When I'm listening to something and go "Kayleigh, um.... you have to hear this," it's usually from MetaFilter.
posted by theichibun at 6:10 PM on October 13, 2010


Well, I'm seeding now, for whatever that's worth.
posted by OmieWise at 6:37 PM on October 13, 2010


Looks like all of the leechers who didn't have incredibly slow connections are done now. 120 GB total uploaded for me, w00t! I'll leave it on my box until I run out of room but I'm guessing there's not going to be a lot of traffic once this drops off the front page of MetaTalk.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:04 PM on October 13, 2010


Thanks, theichibun! Share & enjoy the weirdness! And thanks, all seeders! You especially rock, not_on_display & burnmp3s!
posted by Pronoiac at 6:24 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it seems to be dead. I was ready to feel great for seeding, but there are no leechers.
posted by OmieWise at 3:07 PM on October 15, 2010


My ratio is going to suck. I'm glad Demonoid doesn't care about this one, I've get plenty of other things ruining that.
posted by theichibun at 3:14 PM on October 15, 2010


I'm only ~25% or so done; I'm probably not leeching now because my home connection has fallen over again. So don't dispair.
posted by Mitheral at 3:25 PM on October 15, 2010


I am still seeding! Yoo hoo! Anyone, I'm here still! :D
posted by not_on_display at 8:31 PM on October 18, 2010


I just started downloading now. 20GB. Man oh man. I guess waiting for the initial flood to die down has backfired, considering I'm on epic pipes and only getting a 2.9KB rate. Heh.
posted by davejay at 10:13 AM on October 19, 2010


Here davejay, I'll get my seed going again. That should help.
posted by carsonb at 10:35 AM on October 19, 2010


I just started downloading now. 20GB. Man oh man. I guess waiting for the initial flood to die down has backfired, considering I'm on epic pipes and only getting a 2.9KB rate. Heh.

It's still seeding on my box which maxes out at around 10 MB/s. Maybe you're not connecting to most of the seeds for some reason?
posted by burnmp3s at 10:40 AM on October 19, 2010


I am seeding to 1 of 1 peer at a rate of between 400 & 600 KB/s.
posted by not_on_display at 12:29 PM on October 19, 2010


...sexually.
posted by SpiffyRob at 2:06 PM on October 19, 2010


I just got back and am seeding to 0 of 0, is there a button I need to push or something?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:09 PM on October 19, 2010


Checking the stats, it looks like four people are seeding right now, & no one is downloading.

While I've already shouted out the impressively fast uploaders, who are instrumental to getting it out quickly, I think keeping it going long-term is about having many people, possibly on slower connections, seeding, & not relying solely on the fast connections. I'm somewhere in between, & I'm not leaving my computer on 24/7 for this.

It seems stable, if you want to sidebar this or anything.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:45 PM on October 19, 2010


Good point, I should do that.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:48 PM on October 19, 2010


This looks totally awesome, but there's no way I can get all of this with my *checks* 12 gigs of free space. I'd like to second a Best Of or Favorites collection.
posted by gc at 2:27 AM on October 20, 2010


Unfortunate that I recently had to switch from a dedicated server with 1300GB a month to a VPS with only 500GB a month (and next to no storage :(). Luckily, it's enough that I don't have to disappoint the Chinese who burn up a few hundred GB a month just on my relatively small collection of silly corporate anthems.
posted by wierdo at 8:49 AM on October 20, 2010


I ended up with 6 peers, and a download rate of 3MB/sec, so I've got it all and I'll seed it for as long as I can. Thanks for the bandwidth, you mad six you!
posted by davejay at 10:13 AM on October 20, 2010


and by "as long as I can" I mean "as long as I'm at work each day, every workday, until someone gives me a hard time about it
posted by davejay at 10:15 AM on October 20, 2010


and my standard unit of measurement for things like this is "metric fuck-ton", so I like the cut of your jib, Pronoiac
posted by davejay at 10:16 AM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Okay I sidebarred this and I have my machine up and running and still with no peers. I'm using transmission which announces the torrent at http://tracker.publicbt.com:80/announce

I'm sort of new to this whole deal, is there something I should change so that people can get at this file? I don't have anything restrictive as far as who is allowed to peer though I do prefer encrypted peers. Ideas?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:18 AM on October 20, 2010


If you have the whole torrent already, Transmission won't show you a seed/peer count normally. If you right click on the torrent and select properties, then open the trackers tab, it'll show you the number of seeds and peers the tracker sent last time Transmission asked for the list.

If you're actively uploading to someone, the main screen will show a connected peer.
posted by wierdo at 10:44 AM on October 20, 2010


Oh, it turns out you need to check the show more details checkbox at the bottom to show the seeder/leecher count.
posted by wierdo at 10:54 AM on October 20, 2010


I'm staring at it and it says "seeding to 0 of 0 peers" and the upload speed is 0.0 KB. I feel like the torrent is announced but something is keeping me from properly seeding it. I'll dig around some.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:17 AM on October 20, 2010


I just moved, and while I have no qualms* about using borrowed internet for most things I just can't make myself use torrents either way on someone else's dime. That should end Saturday though.

*Or qualxes for fans of Arnold. I love that show.
posted by theichibun at 11:32 AM on October 20, 2010


Jessamyn, open the preferences dialog, go to the network tab, and click the 'test port' button. If it says closed, you'll need to forward the port to whatever computer is running Transmission or check the UPNP box, which should theoretically do it for you, but only works for me about half the time.
posted by wierdo at 12:00 PM on October 20, 2010


I'm on my way out the door, so let me drop a chunk of exposition. Hopefully I'm not modding my own thread here.


jessamyn: Good point, I should do that.

Thanks for the sidebarring!


gc: This looks totally awesome, but there's no way I can get all of this with my *checks* 12 gigs of free space. I'd like to second a Best Of or Favorites collection.

Your BitTorrent client should let you select only certain folders for download - for this, by year & by month should work.


davejay: and my standard unit of measurement for things like this is "metric fuck-ton", so I like the cut of your jib, Pronoiac.

"Fuck-ton" & "shit-ton" were pretty natural terms to use here, but I remembered surfing Mefi from the office & cringing when realizing that the post I just clicked had "fuck" in the URL.

Also, thanks for uploading.


jessamyn: I'm staring at it and it says "seeding to 0 of 0 peers" and the upload speed is 0.0 KB. I feel like the torrent is announced but something is keeping me from properly seeding it. I'll dig around some.

On preview, wierdo said what I had to say. More people should check this; all of my current connections are incoming, which makes me wonder if everyone's behind closed ports.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:10 PM on October 20, 2010


Now all we need is someone to stream these songs randomly 24/7 over an internet radio station. That, or give 'em to Pandora for a MeFi station (if they do such things, which they likely don't.)
posted by davejay at 1:33 AM on October 21, 2010


My system is seeding normally now, so I'm assuming my setup wasn't the problem. Thanks to folks trying to help me troubleshoot it.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:46 AM on October 21, 2010


Your BitTorrent client should let you select only certain folders for download - for this, by year & by month should work.

That doesn't help if you don't know which folders you want, which is why I was hoping to start with some sort of Most Favorited subset to see whose stuff I like.
posted by pracowity at 12:18 AM on October 31, 2010


davejay: Now all we need is someone to stream these songs randomly 24/7 over an internet radio station.

This playlist has 50 random songs posted to MeFi Music. Need more? Six random songs.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:23 PM on November 2, 2010


Before I compose another reply, I should mention the torrent for October is up.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:29 PM on November 2, 2010


pracowity, how much music are you looking for? The top 25? 100?

Checking out some of the early songs posted to Music, I noticed that there was an earlier iteration, 2003 to 2005. Is there any interesting history there? Did everything get reposted once Music restarted, & didn't require mathowie to manually add songs?
posted by Pronoiac at 12:28 AM on November 3, 2010


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