Popular Music Torrent Site What.CD Shuts Down After Authorities Seize Servers

BY Josiah HughesPublished Nov 17, 2016

Music fans hoping to download obscure tunes from the web have been hit with another roadblock, as the popular torrent site What.CD has shut down for good.

The site's homepage currently has a message that confirms it's shut down and will likely never return. "We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form," the statement reads. "All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish."

The invite-only torrent site was created in the wake of Oink's Pink Palace, which was shut down in October of 2007. Though it was a hub for illegal downloading, What.CD hosted many different genres of music, making it a paradise for fans of obscure and hard-to-find music. Even music industry villain Martin Shkreli was begging for an invite last month.

The What.CD statement claims that they shut down "due to some recent events." According to Zataz, 12 of the site's servers were seized in the north of France. The founder of What.CD, however, is believed to reside in the United Kingdom.

Stay tuned for more information on this story as it develops.

 

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