Joy! Oh Joy!

[Last Byte]

A music buff’s quest to discover the perfect P2P software

The day I discovered that music could be downloaded – free of cost – using relatively simple P2P software was the happiest day of my life on the internet. It opened a world of possibilities for me. I could download any song that I wanted. I did not have to make a list of CDs to friends and relatives traveling abroad–for those not available in Pakistan–all I had to do was get an internet connection, install the software that connected me to thousands of users across the globe and using their libraries of MP3s, I could search and download to my heart’s content.

Kaaza, the software in vogue at that time had the advantage of being the first of its kind to be introduced to our local internet user population. The speed at which one could download songs was frustratingly slow: it could take from one to four days for a song to download depending on how many people on the network could share the file and how long one remained online. Those were the times when the concept of cable internet or a LAN was still relatively new and very few areas within the city offered the service.

After cable internet had been introduced in our area, I was heartbroken to discover that Kaaza wouldn’t work on it. The reason given to me back than was too technical for me to understand and I really didn’t care. What mattered was that I couldn’t download free music anymore. Friends who had no trouble downloading from other software suggested some that might work for me. They ranged from Kaaza Lite to Morpheus to Phex. They came nowhere near the simplicity of Kaaza and proved too complex for me to handle. All I wanted was to search and download songs, pictures and videos how difficult was it going to be finding software which could provide me with the above mentioned services? In my sad, depressed state of not finding the right software, I had given up all hope and had resigned myself to actually buying music online. My Kazaa years were over.

I found the answer to my prayers when a certain someone in a certain radio station introduced me to certain software that they used to download music. I went mad with joy and proceeded to spread the word around as fast as I could. It turned out “everyone” had been using that software for a quite a while.

Fast forward to 2006 and I can download an average of 150 to 200 songs a day depending on whether I spend the entire day on the computer typing, searching and selecting appropriate MP3s. The software that I now use is LimeWire and it takes an average of five minutes per song and ten minutes per music video to download.

With LimeWire, I thought I had found ‘it’ at last: the perfect downloading P2P software. LimeWire on the other hand, did have its drawbacks: relatively unknown tracks couldn’t be found and a track simply wouldn’t download if there weren’t enough users online to share it, even if the search engine conjured up the MP3 as being ‘available’ on the network. Getting back to the point I was about to make, I had thought I’d found the perfect software, till I was introduced to Azureus. A program that uses bit-torrents (sounds cool doesn’t it?) to download.

The best part is that all I have to do is go on a torrent compatible website, type the name of the album (yes, I have advanced from searching individual songs to entire albums) and select an album depending on the number of people who can share it and the number of people who are having it downloaded on their systems. It takes an average of one to four days for each album to download (similar to my Kazaa days), but it’s worth the wait because it beats having to search individual songs to download. Plus you get to see what the original CD cover looks like as each torrent file usually contains one.

From Kaaza to nothing to LimeWire and then to Azureus, not only have I discovered how P2P has evolved with time but have also noticed significant changes in the way I search online and the kind of music I download. I’ve also noticed that the idea of having the whole world’s music library at a single tap of your keyboard can be exciting at first, leading one to download all kinds of obscure music (most of which I haven’t listened to, but like to keep to show off) but after a while, it becomes a bit of a burden when one discovers they’ve downloaded practically everything cant think of anything else.

First Published:
Spider
June 2006