Some of you may be unaware of Oink and what it was all about. As an avid music lover, this is my own personal opinion. Oink was an invite-only file sharing website. If you have listened to the corporate news stories about Oink, you've probably heard that Oink users were nothing but thieves, and that they were scamming the record industry, and scamming the musical artists. You also probably heard that people had to pay to join the site. These accusations are NOT true. I was a member of Oink, and I never paid a dime. Donations were 100% voluntary. Those who donated were never given perks (other than a little star next to their username). Users donated because they loved the site, and they wanted to see it stay alive, and Oink quickly became the best place to find any kind of music you could think of. Oink was an online bit-torrent community of music enthusiasts, most of whom were sharing music from their own personal collections.

The news also reported that Oink mainly operated to provide illegal unreleased CDs. That accusation is also NOT entirely true. Oink did have some leaked content for download, but those files were by far NOT the majority. For most users, leaks were not the primary perk of having an Oink membership. Many people, like myself and my friends, rarely downloaded leaked CDs. Usually we downloaded imports, rare albums, and sometimes out of print music from our own private collections. More than 50% of my personal downloads were either out of print, or not available in stores. What if music enthusiasts wanted to buy an album, but it isn't available in stores? The record industry doesn't care. Our only option is to either go on ebay and pay sometimes outrageous prices, or we can go online and download. Most of the music on my blog is from my own private collection, or from my friends private collections. Also, most music on this blog is either rare, out of print, or hard to find, NOT that any of that matters.

Since Oink has been shut down, I have been persuaded to boycott the huge record labels. I believe we should both actively support our favorite artists, and at the same time boycott major record labels. We can achieve this by doing the following:

• Never buy music distributed by major record labels (such as Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner). OR, if you cannot find a certain song online, go buy it, then share it with others!
• Always buy music from artists that are on independent record labels!
• Always go see your favorite bands in CONCERT!
• Always buy Official non-musical merchandise (such as T-shirts, posters, tour books, keychains, etc.)!
• Always recommend favorite artists to your friends and family!
  

There are more things you can do! For more information, I HIGHLY Recommend reading the article, 'When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide'. If you are frustrated with the current state of music today, then lets try to change it whenever we can. I hope that this will help educate and make people realize that they are corporate victims. Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and ideas. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Djpault

Thanks DjpaulT

Never Forget OiNK 10/23/2007