Due to some recent events, What.CD is shutting down. We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. 1/2
— What.CD (@whatcd) November 17, 2016
All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish. <3 2/2
— What.CD (@whatcd) November 17, 2016
As revealed in the tweets above, popular music torrent website What.cd has shut down. An article on The Verge says it’s because they were raided by French authorities…
What.cd, an invite-only music torrent website first launched in 2007, has been shut down after a raid by French authorities. The private tracker offered free (and often illegal) access to a massive, deeply thorough collection of music and was popular among audiophiles for its strict rules around quality and file formats. The site was created after the shutdown of another well-known torrent website, Oink, which operated between 2004 and 2007. Though its primary focus was music sharing, What.cd also permitted torrents of computer software, ebooks, and other content.
If you try to go to What.cd’s website, you get the same message they tweeted.