@gankmore said:

I like the spreadsheet, and phishows.com, but wouldn't archive.org be a much better long term solution to this?

Seems like we could build on all this work, and have a permanent archive. It'd take Phish management a few minutes to approve this request and it'd get us out of the business of trading lossy files via mediafire.

Archive.org would be great but Phish is not going to approve that. They have consciously and flatly rejected Archive hosting Phish shows for 20 years now.

I think etree is the next best thing for people that want lossless files and most shows are there. There is clearly a huge demand for mp3 files as it will not be long before the spreadsheet has served 1 Million downloads. Likewise, I hosted MP3's of the 2009 summer shows on drop.io and had 2,000-3,000 downloads per show. Not everyone has the technical ability to convert lossless files, the storage space on their drive (yes, this is true, despite decreasing costs of storage and the claim that it is "practically free" many people can't afford additional drives), or the inclination to own FLACs for a variety of reasons.

I do think Lossless files are the route to go, and encourage people to learn about them. I started a thread here to help people out with learning about torrenting: http://forum.phish.net/?thread=1309134803#start

In the interim, until Apple (which sadly many people are inexplicably wed to) decides to play nice with FLAC, and lossless becomes the standard and not the one-off, I think 'The Spreadsheet' is as close to a permanent solution as possible. In many ways, it is more permanent than even etree as torrents there die all the time with lack of seeders.

The good news is that with the birth of digital music coming at the dawn of Phishs' popularity, it is doubtful that any of the shows that have now been circulated will ever disappear into obscurity with the meticulous nature with which they have been tracked, cataloged, collected and archived across many medium, sites, and sources.

The more important thing, in my opinion, to focus on now are the shows that have never seen the light of day. Sadly, there are 'hoarders' and tapers that simply do not circulate what they have. Why? So they can be a hero and release a trove of material in 2040 like when the Betty Boards circulated? So they can listen in smug happiness knowing that they are the only ones able to listen to a particular show? Who knows what the motivation is, but it is sad when you have people like Lenny Stubbe, Jason Sobel, and Kevin Hoy busting their asses to make it all available.

Hopefully, one day too, there will be a distribution and release system from the tons of material meticulously archived by Kevin Shapiro.