What.cd, an invite-only music ******* website first launched in 2007, has been shut down after a raid by French authorities. The private tracker offered free (and often illegal) access to a massive, deeply thorough collection of music and was popular among audiophiles for its strict rules around quality and file formats. The site was created after the shutdown of another well-known ******* website, Oink, which operated between 2004 and 2007. Though its primary focus was music sharing, What.cd also permitted *******s of computer software, ebooks, and other content.
Zataz Magazine is reporting 12 servers that powered What.cd’s infrastructure were seized by French cybercrime authorities. What.cd hasn’t been taken offline completely, but *******s are unavailable and the homepage now displays a message confirming its demise:
"Due to some recent events, What.CD is shutting down. We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish."
That's so sad. I wasn't on it but it helped me find so much stuff that I could never find. Rare samplers that were never for sale, rare CDs that were never for sale or I couldn't afford, and so much more. I didn't have an account but I had friends with it. I'm gonna miss it.