The Lost Joy of Music Piracy ↳
Launched in 2004, Oink’s Pink Palace was created by a 21-year-old computer science student in England in response to legal action being taken against users of public file sharing services like Napster and The Pirate Bay. In a few short years, Oink grew into a massive community of like-minded music enthusiasts, offering high-quality downloads of virtually every album in existence. “It was like opening a secret door to this incredible world,” Sheridan reflects. “File sharing was everywhere, but you'd never seen this level of care and detail. You see those videos now where they bring film people into the Criterion Collection—it felt like that—being invited to the ultimate music collector’s den, the private club where they show you all these records you never thought you'd have. Most people didn't have the same kind of experience, they got the LimeWire version which was the equivalent of wading through a dollar store that’s just been ransacked and shit’s all over the floor.”