See also this archive recovered earlier from a different academic study by Ben Fields et al: https://archive.org/details/myspace_thesis - this new archive appears to be much bigger, but I don't know whether it incorporates the earlier one.

Currently doesn't, we're trying to figure out the easiest way to do so.

This 1.3 TB collection of MP3s is wonderful! The Hobbit search/player makes it much more manageable.

There's some rare songs from a band I like (Something Like Silas) that I know are in the archive. Is there some way to contribute to the Hobbit player so I can add a direct download button for a specific song? Otherwise I'll have to pull the whole 1.3 TB (I will, but it'll take a few days and I really hope this doesn't get hit by a takedown notice within that time).

I opened metadata.tsv from here: https://archive.org/download/myspace_dragon_hoard_2010/

Used text editor's search to find what ever I need. Then "View Contents" on the correct ZIP file and download the mp3 file the search in text editor gave me. Therefore I just had to download the songs I wanted to get back to me.

There doesn't appear to be any way to contribute. The source for the viewer is here: https://archive.org/details/myspace_dragon_hoard_searcher

Using Firefox, if you open up viewer.js in the debugger and set a breakpoint on line 265 where archiveurl is being set and select a track to play, you should be able to manually pick out either the zip file that contains it, or the file inside with the weird, jumbled name.

Thank you! I guess if you're interested in this, then you probably also like music and coding. I taught myself AppleScript so I could manage iTunes tags when I was a teenager. The new redesigns look pretty ugly to me, so I'm still using iTunes 10.6.3, and I replaced the rsrc to get coloured icons.

In the medium term, I'd rather rewrite my own offline music player. I don't like YouTube/Spotify streaming of pop music with ads, I like my rare indie MP3s ripped from demo CDs or from repairing a friend's iPod back in 2006. The column browser and playlist folders are essential for me to keep things organised, and smart playlists are far easier to understand than SQL queries.

Would anybody else be interested in rewriting iTunes together? It's one of the few reasons I haven't yet hopped to Linux. (also the trackpad driver, and osascript being built-in to every app).

Something that Amarok, Audacious, and Rhythmbox aren't already bringing to the world of iTunes alternatives?

I'm envisioning something cross-platform so I can start by using it on Mac before I switch.

Amarok doesn't have smart playlists. Clementine isn't maintained. Audacious doesn't seem to have column browser or playlist folders. Rhythmbox has a column browser, but not playlist folders. None have AppleScript support.

Hi, author of the utility here. Yeah there wasn't a repo yet when we went live, I whipped the whole thing up in a night when Jason put out a request for helpers. I've now published the code for this player to Github, it's available at https://github.com/jbaicoianu/ia-myspace-music-search - pull requests welcome! Still figuring out which license Archive.org wants (I'm just a volunteer).

I've also added a download link to the player, so it's easier to get at the original mp3s now. However, it'll still have the obfuscated hash filename - I tried using the "download" attribute on the download href, but unfortunately it runs into issues with CORS.

I took a bunch of notes as I was developing this too, I'm planning on publishing it as a post soon. Keep an eye out for the follow-up!

This is great, but I wish it went back a year earlier. My friend and I had some music up on Myspace until late 2007 when we decided to start fresh on Soundcloud. It would be great to hear that early stuff again!

Sounds like something straight out of https://www.reddit.com/r/datahoarder

In a more literal sense, it probably sounds like something straight out of https://reddit.com/r/Emo :)

I didn't know archive.org runs old games by emulation right in the browser. That's just fantastic!

All sorts of things! We're proud of it.

And should be!

I was really hoping to find the tracks this user was looking for some time ago[1]. Alas, they don't seem to be in the collection.

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/7uiv8b/myspace... "There are a couple of songs that it is of the utmost importance that I acquire..."

> accomplished using unknown means by an anonymous academic study

That's ... that's not what academic means.

In contrast, this seems something like an actual anonymous academic study:

https://internetcensus2012.github.io/InternetCensus2012/pape...

But, helpfully, semi-known means.

How does copyright work on lost data?

Exactly the same as non-lost data.

In fact, copyright law is designed with the intent to enforce permanent data loss, and destroy data in other people's hands. Namely, yours.