Extract from Affinity 3: 23rd August, 1996
Interview with NetFrack (CDA)

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Interviewer: Mr. Mister                Interviewee: NetFrack
Dated:       Mon, Aug 19, 1996         Affiliation: CDA President

AFT: Would you take a moment to please introduce yourself and your affiliations

NFK: I run a site for the following groups:  Mentality, Reflux, Sin, Rise,
Syndicate, Guild, Core, CDA, Extreme, MtD, and Wet (which is a BBS based
Group).  I also Courier when I please, do art, and code (Very little, only
when called for) and I'm the President of CDA, (Compress 'Da Audio) a new
group which I started on August 13.

AFT: Please tell us about this new concept in releasing.  We have all seen
utils/games release groups before.  But, CD music?  Who thought of this
idea?

NFK: Well, I've thought of the idea of somehow pirating, music.  However I
never had the means to do so, until now.  The problem in the past with
pirating music was HD space the only means to distribute the music was in
the WAV format.  That tends to get huge.  Especially if you an average
song.  We eliminated the size constraints.  We use a new format to
compress our music.  The MP3 format.  For example, if you rip a song from
CD, using 44 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo sound (which we use in ALL our releases)
then you would end up with a 50 MB WAV.  The MP3 format takes much less
space, that same 50MB WAV would be 3 to 4MB in MP3.

AFT: What are your standards?  What type of music do you release?  Is it new
stuff that you go for?  Please tell us how this works.

NFK: Our standards are the following:  The Ripped song MUST be of CD-Quality.
As for the categories, we try to do all kinds of music.  It has to be
popular.  It could be rock, rap, techno, or anything else enjoyed by the
masses.  If the people like it, we try to do it.  Right now we've done
music dating back about a year or two.  Though my idea was to bring new or
recent music.  Since many people demanded them, we did them.  Soon we'll
being doing the MTV or VH1 top tens.  We will also create a system for
voting or a way people can request tracks.  For now I think I'm going to
let people mail me their requests at netfrack.

AFT: Have you gotten any positive vibes from the scene general?  Do you think
this type of releasing will succeed or get popular support?

NFK: Oh yes.  We've gotten a lot of positive responses towards this new
concept we've introduced.  From the common trader in #WAREZ666 to members
in large groups such as fATE I keep getting /msged in IRC from everyone.
"This is a great idea!"  They seem pretty interested in getting more
releases from CDA though the only problem we have been faced with is some
people think this is not true warez and have deleted many of our releases
that have been put up.  Some one look up the word warez in the dictionary
and tell me what it means. and to those Site Ops who disagree with me.
Tell me, on the FTP site you're running, is Art warez, is porn warez, is
the Virii and Hack tools dir warez!?  It's all for fun!  The "Scene" as we
call it, is composed of all these little fun things that make it up.  So
ENJOY our releases they're for your entertainment.  Also for the people
who would never buy a single CD (I have never bought a CD in my life.
That's also one of the reasons I started this group, to keep my music
needs satisfied :)).

AFT: It's nice to know that for once, a new concept has not received much
heat.

NFK: Well, not a lot, no.  90% of the population that is aware of this and are
pretty excited.  They actually look forward to getting more of our
releases I'd say!

AFT: Have any major couriers approached you?  Also, how many releases have
there been to-date?

NFK: Well at the moment we have had MtD (Motivation to Deliver) and Lightning
come to us, to be our Official Couriers.  Our internal couriering team
includes a lot of members from the groups I'm already in.  So we have some
good, experienced people (and then some not very experienced ones as well
;)) as part of our group.  As a whole they're all a "good bunch".  About
our couriering at the present, since neither LTG or MtD have really begun
to do what they really should be doing, we've been using some of the
couriers and IRC offerers from other groups.  They do the job for us, but
it really got desperate for us yesterday and I had to assign a new IP to
my site solely for CDA, and had a leech fest started from all kinds of
people from the small warez channels.  So far today it is looking much
better.  We had some members contribute by letting people get through them
via DCC or FTP.  Everyone helped out, a little.  We Really could use
another Distro Site and some more DCC offerers though.  Most offering took
place in #CDA where we got many curious people dropping by.

AFT: Do you foresee any new groups emerging which would also release music?
Is this just a fad, or are you here to stay?  What are your plans to
strengthen CDA?

NFK: Oh yes I'm very sure that there will be new groups doing the same thing
we're doing.  Using the same techniques (which I dare not speak of) we're
using.  I personally, am not in favor of more groups like CDA.  Yes, we
are here to stay, and be the Only group bringing you Quality music
releases.  To make CDA stronger we need One really *good* Distro, and
offering bots would give us a real boost.  My plans to make this group
better is to get the guys more organized (to CDA:  "You KNOW what I'm
talking about guys.") by each other knowing what his duties are and who's
ripping what.  Since you're aware, everyone has a couple of "hit" CD's and
a problem that I see appearing is that two guys might rip the same thing,
causing confusing.  So, DAILY newsletters from me to them would do the job
done right.

AFT: You said earlier that you would not favor the emergence of new groups
such as CDA, why is that?  Are you afraid of a little competition?

NFK: Actually, you see I want this group to be "one of a kind" (and it is
right now).  So I wouldn't favor another group, if it came any time soon.
Since I'm sure it could encourage, many people to start doing what we do.
Thus, the group would not have that advantage it has now.  We have to earn
our respect, if everyone starts doing this, then we, nor our art form will
gain that respect.

AFT: How much CPU power and time does it take to sample one song?

NFK: A song can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours.  You see?  The poor rippers
:( They deserve respect and on slower 486 Machines they do experience
"lag".

AFT: Are there any shout-outs, greets or anything you like the readers to
know?

NFK: Well, I'd like to send my greets to all the rippers who waste a LOT of
their time (and CPU power) encoding those MP3s, and to Lightning & MtD,
Hey guys the Contract said, It's already started! get couriering!  To,
WildWendy, as an Excellent Helper on the Site.  Also!  For CDA WANTED:
Distro Siteops & IRC Offerers!

AFT: Well, I would like to wish you all the luck on behalf of Affinity.
Please keep us posted.

Affinity would like to thank you for your time in conducting this
interview.