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Soulseek is a file-sharing application and tight knit network used mainly to exchange music files, allthought it can share just about any other kind of file. It was created by Nir Arbel, a former Napster programmer. Like Napster did, it relies on a central server, which makes it vulnerable to being shut down by legal action. Soulseek offers a huge selection of music today, and is free of any and all spyware or any other malicious code.
Originally, the Soulseek userbase was composed mostly of members of the IDM Mailing List. Therefore, the vast majority of music found on Soulseek was underground electronic music or music produced by the users themselves. However, after Audiogalaxy was shut down, a deluge of former Audiogalaxy faithfuls invaded Soulseek and brought with them corporate music owned by record labels belonging to the RIAA (though Soulseek is still a good place to find underground and independent music, as well as knowledgeable music lovers from anywhere). Since that time, the userbase has grown rapidly, and there are some ~120,000 users on at any given time. By Early 2004 Soulseek boasted more than one million registered users. This may seem relatively small compared to such file sharing programs as Kazaa and Napster, but Soulseek is more of an underground project and is a smaller server-based p2p program. Soulseek's server used to have a problem with crashing due to the CPU overload, but this problem has since been rectified. A new server was setup in summer of 2004. It is rare to see the server down for extended periods of time.
There are chat rooms set up by users to discuss the various types of files shared over the network. Most rooms are dedicated to musical styles or various world regions. For example, there are several Japanese music rooms, which have spawned a BitTorrent sharing group and an underground music room that tends to have the most users and focuses on less-popular music. Some unique features (starting as of Version 154 beta build 3j) include searching for files within a room (which is much more effective than a network search) and setting a ticker. Longtime features include a friends list and sharing privileges for said friends. Privileges are one feature that make both the network and program unique in many respects. Privileges are aquired by "donating" to the administrators, and in return users who are "privileged" are able to download from other users faster by cutting in line, and essentially "jumping" to the top of the queue.
Many of the original Soulseek users are also music producers. Due to this fact, it was only natural for them to take their community spirit one step further and form a record label. Soulseek Records was formed in 2002.
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