Article - The blogs that act as modern-day cratediggers

Cratedigging … the old-fashioned way. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian

Interesting article I came across about the music recommendations and passionate music loving bloggers who are beginning to fill the void of the old school record store format.

"When big indie albums leak, bloggers often post up tracks to drive traffic to their site – it's cynical, and often against the wishes of the artist, but I'd be lying if I said I'd never done it myself. However, there's another type of site engaging in copyright infringement, in a far more defensible way. These are the whole-album bloggers, the modern-day cratediggers who post records long out of print, and so obscure as to have barely existed. These blogs democratise record collecting, making the arcane – Turkish prog, Italian soundtracks, Puerto Rican 45s – accessible to all.

The cratedigging bloggers think their posts are on solid moral ground. "If an LP is out of print, there are no sales to be affected, so no one suffers any losses," says Smooth, of My Jazz World. "If the industry cannot keep this music in print, then bloggers like myself have to fill the void."

They also, perhaps paradoxically, keep the collectors market vibrant – "If 500 people download an album from 1981, and there is one for sale for €200, then my blog has probably been instrumental in selling it," suggests 433rpm, who blogs at No Longer Forgotten Music.

Of course, what the cratediggers are doing is technically illegal, hence their anonymity. But there's a real vehemence from the cratedigger brigade towards blogs that post new and readily available material: "I hate those blogs, they're the true death of the music industry," spits 433rpm. Hines agrees: "I am constantly stunned at the cupidity and greed of the people that frequent these sites."

Despite the questionable legality, savvy labels are starting to see the opportunities from these exhumed artists. 433rpm's championing of Dutch punks the Rondos, and Pittsburgh industrialists XX Committee, led to reissues of their material. Soul reissuers Wax Poetics have advertised on My Jazz World, although Smooth says the likes of Universal and Sony are still reluctant: "They cannot fight on one side what they support on the other."

Feel free to leave your recommendations for cratedigger blogs in the comments below, but beware: as Simon Reynolds said in an article for the Wire last year, whole-album blogs "drastically exacerbate the condition known as collector-itis". You have been warned!"

(As taken from guardian.co.uk)