Sad News, Torchomatic.com has been shut down

[Darkwave]

[quote][i]Originally posted by kimiiii[/i]
<br>Wait a minute? What was this site? How come this is the first I have heard of it and now it's dead????

You could download those songs? Please clarify. Who was he and what was this all about???
[/quote]

Hi Kimiii,
It was a rare 80's mp3 site for obscure (New Wave/synthpop/Indie).
Had been around for almost 5 years and was run by Simon in the UK.
http://www.torchomatic.com/
http://www.torchomatic.com/gallery.htm "rare album covers"

[schwenko]

[quote][i]Originally posted by British[/i]
<br>Who were the "powers that be?"
[/quote]

Simon said that it was the BPI, I guess the British equivalent of RIAA, the rat bastards!

[Justj0hn]

What a major bummer. I've been frequently paying visits to that site for the past 4 years and have scored many an obscurity from it. It'll be sorely missed.

J.j......

[Darkwave]

Mike and Eric's are the only ones i know about.

These were the others..
Blake's http://www.thefirstcut.net/
Scott's http://www.nerocam.com/MP3/index.asp
Rene's http://people.freenet.de/DeDiniDevil/songs_archive.htm
Simon's http://www.torchomatic.com/

[yipyipcoyote]

Of course sharing songs (free downloads or p2p), no matter how rare or OOP, is illegal. Just like burning a cd for a "friend". But when something has been out of print for 20 years, how is an artist going to get any payment? The only persons making money would probably be the Ebay sharks, that's all. If places like torchomatic.com can generate enough interest in this kind of music, then maybe these greedy record companies will start re-releasing some stuff? Sites like this are getting fewer and fewer and MikeP's worries are understandable.

[V]

[ekahob]

yipyip, I agree with you that since this music is 20 years old the damage to the artist is minimal. Rewinds point is that someone might not buy the "Great Lost Bands of the New Wave Era" CD that Rhino releases because I have already made that music available for free. Even when those old songs get played on the radio the artists have a chance to make a penny if they wrote the song. I pay nothing. I also make nothing. I feel with the exposure I provide (keeping the flame alive), I maintain an interest in this music. After rediscovering some of this old music I have purchased some of the CD's that I link to.

The thing is Rhino or anybody else will never release a lot of this stuff. There simply isn't enough money to be made. Ask the guy over at hyped2death ( http://www.hyped2death.com ) how he is doing. I doubt he is even making grocery money. btw - I highly recommend this guys stuff.

[eight6]

Like most of the people posting here, I have downloaded many items from Simon's site. I can only speak for myself, but I can't understand the harm in what was done.

Firstly, there is no direct link to Simon's activity and a loss of income on the part of the artists in question.

Secondly, the re-issue companies seem to be sticking with the "safe" eighties material. What Simon posted barely saw the light of day in the eighties, let alone having enough recognition value to make a compilation 20+ years on. I don't recall Simon ever posting a Cyndi Lauper song. (you get my drift)

Also, as a collector of vinyl, I have purchased at least 100 of the titles posted on Simon's site over the past 2 years. I would never have purchased any of these without hearing them on Torchomatic.com. I've spent on average 10 to 20 times the original purchase price for some these records, primarily due to their scarcity. I find it odd that nobody cries foul when a "used record dealer" makes money reselling items that, in the strictest sense of the law are not to be resold, yet people preach endlessly about the evils (and illegality) of downloading, esp. obscurities. Used record dealers the world over have thousands of my hard earned dollars, whereas I have never sent Simon a penny. If anything, the used record dealers owe the artists a portion of the resale.

The RIAA et al. have never said anything about this, but would have you believe what Simon and others are doing is criminal. I can see the RIAA's point when it comes to d/ling current material, but to shut down a site like Simon's seems to me, pointless.

[jaybag]

Dang - I got to e-meet Torcho because we're both members of the Yahoo group for Red Box, but I never visited his website. If I'd known about it, I'd have been there daily. And now it's gone...(sniffles)...

Actually, eight6, there WAS a big flap over used CD's a while back. Remember the Garth Brooks debacle about a decade ago? The Wherehouse chain started selling used discs, and Garth proclaimed he wouldn't sell his stuff at their stores anymore if they continued to do so. They came to some kind of agreement. I think the RIAA has their hands too full now with the Kazaa's of the world to go after used CD shops now.

But you're absolutely right - it is totally pointless to have a site shut down if they're selling stuff that's long out of print. And how many hits did Torcho's site get? Somehow I don't think he was taking a big chunk out of the music industry's profits - "Gee, I was going to drop $20 on Britney's new disc, but I just found out I can download a bunch of out-of-print obscure new wave stuff for free instead. I'm there!" Puh-leaze.

I agree IN THEORY with what rewind said, but there are many of us (myself definitely included) who would always rather own the actual released music (album, CD, whatever) than MP3 copies of the songs. A recording artist once called Napster (in its original incarnation) "the world's greatest listening station." Absolutely! I can't tell you how many times I've downloaded a track from some new band, loved it, then went out and bought the CD. Just like eight6, if I really like a piece of music that I hear, I seek out more from the same artist. If downloading is the only means available, I go that route and sleep perfectly well at night.

[Grunch]

I'll certainly miss this site. A sincere thanks for all the great tracks offered to us through the last few years. I hope NWO doesn;t suffer this fate from whatever pressures that forced Torchomatic to close up shop.

[2Nu]

I am saddened by all of this RIAA clampdown B.S. but I feel the countless music blogger sites will be able to step up to the plate and help fill the mp3 void. Now we just need to tacitly post those links somewhere under their 'site sniffer' radar so we can access them. Any Suggestions?

[Cheetos]

Yes, I'm sad about Torchomatic too.

Music blogs are good promotional tools, to sample mainly new music. This site updates hourly to let you know when various sites have been updated.

http://www.mp3blogs.org/

[Frank_Chickens]

This is indeed a sad loss.

I post there on a regular basis and it was thanks to the site that I heard some wonderful bands.

The BPI want to be the new RIAA, and by closing down sites like Torchomatic is an act of petty vindictiveness.

[jumpshift]

[quote][i]Originally posted by kimiiii[/i]
<br>Wait a minute? What was this site? How come this is the first I have heard of it and now it's dead????

You could download those songs? Please clarify. Who was he and what was this all about???
[/quote]

I've seen the site before. But never knew it had downloadable songs. And these were really really obscure out-of-print songs that I'd never heard of. Hope there's another way of finding these songs.

[jumpshift]

[quote][i]Originally posted by eight6[/i]
<br>Like most of the people posting here, I have downloaded many items from Simon's site. I can only speak for myself, but I can't understand the harm in what was done.

Firstly, there is no direct link to Simon's activity and a loss of income on the part of the artists in question.

Secondly, the re-issue companies seem to be sticking with the "safe" eighties material. What Simon posted barely saw the light of day in the eighties, let alone having enough recognition value to make a compilation 20+ years on. I don't recall Simon ever posting a Cyndi Lauper song. (you get my drift)

Also, as a collector of vinyl, I have purchased at least 100 of the titles posted on Simon's site over the past 2 years. I would never have purchased any of these without hearing them on Torchomatic.com. I've spent on average 10 to 20 times the original purchase price for some these records, primarily due to their scarcity. I find it odd that nobody cries foul when a "used record dealer" makes money reselling items that, in the strictest sense of the law are not to be resold, yet people preach endlessly about the evils (and illegality) of downloading, esp. obscurities. Used record dealers the world over have thousands of my hard earned dollars, whereas I have never sent Simon a penny. If anything, the used record dealers owe the artists a portion of the resale.

The RIAA et al. have never said anything about this, but would have you believe what Simon and others are doing is criminal. I can see the RIAA's point when it comes to d/ling current material, but to shut down a site like Simon's seems to me, pointless.




[/quote]

It's extremely pointless. And it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
As usual, the RIAA are being ignorant, thoughtless jerks. Simon's site was indeed very unique, and he didn't deserve what happened to him.

[BigBri]

[quote][i]Originally posted by jumpshift[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by kimiiii[/i]
<br>Wait a minute? What was this site? How come this is the first I have heard of it and now it's dead????

You could download those songs? Please clarify. Who was he and what was this all about???
[/quote]

I've seen the site before. But never knew it had downloadable songs. And these were really really obscure out-of-print songs that I'd never heard of. Hope there's another way of finding these songs.


[/quote]

By the way, Simon occasionally lurks around on Soulseek, user name Torchomatic (oddly enough). His share folder includes every song he posted on his site.