Where to find obscure music?

January 27, 2005 9:23 PM

I'm missing some songs from my MP3 collection that I'd really like to have, but don't seem to be readily available. Where do I find these rarities? Some of the songs were from CD's that the local radio station put out. Others were from artists who were smaller and the CD's aren't available easily. iTunes, Buy.com, Napster don't seem to have these type of things, and they don't seem to be on Kazaa or Gnutella. Am I doomed to never find them? Is there someplace that sells these CD's or MP3s?
posted by stovenator to media & arts (10 comments total)

GEMM is a great place to find people who are selling obscure or collectible music. Just try not to get ripped off.
posted by xil at 9:26 PM on January 27, 2005

I'd second GEMM, but as xil mentions, double-check prices so that you don't get ripped off.
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:52 PM on January 27, 2005

Also, try SoulSeek, which is probably the best P2P system for music these days (and has been for several years). No spyware/malware, no bells and whistles. Decentralized, album/folder-oriented, queue system.

It used to be a haven for experimental electronica; now it's a haven for anything. I've found a lot of obscure, wonderful music there, such as the Estonian electronica duo Myrakaru, which I assumed was Japanese, until a nice Estonian guy paged me and told me about it, plus kindly offered to send a bunch of other good Estonian electronica my way. Which he did, in buckets.

One caveat: Don't give up right aay if a search doesn't immediately returns hits. For one, the system has been suffering from some bottlenecks lately, and the programmers are working on a solution (searches are lightning fast for some, dog slow for others). Secondly, even if nobody has a song right now, a user who has it might come online later. So hit the button to put the search in your SoulSeek wishlist, and the client will tell you when it's available.

Personal anecdote: I had Mary Margaret O'Hara's "Miss America" in my wishlist. No results, ever. After a year, suddenly there's a hit. I hated the album, though. And no, wish lists usually yield fruit fairly quickly.
posted by gentle at 10:15 PM on January 27, 2005

Last time I checked, there were still some very impressive offerings in the mp3 department on the newsgroups. I've found plenty of songs there that I'd never find on the p2p netorks or the bittorrent sites. I've seen obscure stuff, regional stuff, you name it.
posted by Clay201 at 10:16 PM on January 27, 2005

What are some of the songs you are looking for?
posted by omnidrew at 11:32 PM on January 27, 2005

emule is pretty good for finding rare music and movies.
posted by sic at 1:48 AM on January 28, 2005

I'd suggest browsing local used CD stores. Surely Austin is full of them.
posted by grateful at 6:03 AM on January 28, 2005

Maybe try Froogle?
posted by bitpart at 7:44 AM on January 28, 2005

Last time I checked, there were still some very impressive offerings in the mp3 department on the newsgroups.

And it's still that way. It's an excellent resource for finding rare stuff. Just find appropriate mp3 newsgroups and place a request for what you are wanting. Eventually, somebody who has what you are looking for will post it. Usually with scanned covers and liner notes as well.
posted by NoMich at 8:42 AM on January 28, 2005

For the songs from the local radio station:
have you tried contacting the station? They might have a few extra copies of the CD's lying around and be willing to sell you one.

For the local bands: do the bands themselves have websites? Presumably you've googled so maybe not.

I second the soulseek recommendation.
posted by mai at 2:35 PM on January 28, 2005