Sorry folks, a bad tech problem has occurred at Magnatune, and the service is currently unavailable.
I'm working on fixing it just as soon as possible...
update: the main server is down (operating system corrupted) and we'll be restoring from backup.
update #2: as good fortune would have it, we had switched to new backup software just three days ago, which means that I have a full backup from Sunday, and incremental backups for each day after. Woohoo!
Usually, my experience is that when you look at your backups and you really need them, you find they "didn't work" for some previously unnoticed reason.
For those of you who are curious, this current problem was caused by my installing some very-badly-behaved new software that was supposed to auto-detect "beats per minute" for each song at Magnatune. It was supposed to make some charts, but instead the software it depended on wasn't available, and the bpm script went a bit haywire. It erased most of /bin/. Result: unbootable server. My bad, though, for not testing the software first from an unprivileged account (whoops).
For the techies out there: Magnatune is running Debian Linux, and the server hadn't previously been rebooted in 6 months.
-john
Ah, OK. I was wondering what was going on. Thanks for the update!
Posted by: Joseph | November 05, 2013 at 07:39 AM
So sad to hear. I know what it is to have to rebuild stuff against the clock. Don't be disheartened.
Posted by: Peter Davey | November 06, 2013 at 03:49 AM
so sad ! I miss Magnatune.
Thanks for your job !
Posted by: bonnaves | November 06, 2013 at 05:26 AM
Wow, thank for the heads up, John. When I tried to go to 'magnatune.com' last night I started to panic, because the entire domain had vanished, the site couldn't be pinged, and traceroute couldn't find you.
When you say the operating system became 'corrupted', was this from without by evil-doers or an internal OS failure? I'm almost afraid to ask what OS you run the server on, because this is not at all a normal situation with operating systems that are truly capable, that is to say robust enough, to do what your main server must do.
Posted by: David Spencer | November 06, 2013 at 06:03 AM
I just wanted to listen to some music :( If it takes longer, please redirect download.magnatune.com as well to the error message.
Posted by: Jörg Sonnenberger | November 06, 2013 at 06:45 AM
good luck we miss you all
Posted by: Nils Humano | November 06, 2013 at 08:02 AM
I will try again, take it easy
Posted by: harrie | November 06, 2013 at 08:02 AM
I do have a Magnatune specific server which is automated and plays from the collection I have. Its better than nothing, and has some good music on it. I know I don't have everything, but hopefully people may enjoy what I have to offer.
Posted by: Jared Rimer | November 06, 2013 at 08:10 AM
Not being available makes me realize all over again how much I love the site & the music you provide us! I'll keep my fingers crossed it all goes as well as possible.....
Posted by: Susan | November 06, 2013 at 09:20 AM
Good luck with getting it up online again!
Posted by: Marcel Bülles | November 06, 2013 at 02:38 PM
Yeppers. Sandboxing is a good concept.
Great that the backups worked.
Posted by: spuffler | November 06, 2013 at 03:35 PM
Your On Top Of IT!! way to go
and Way To Go using Linux!!!
God smiles upon us!
Posted by: 2v1c | November 06, 2013 at 04:45 PM
Sorry you have to go through this, but very glad you have backups. Redundancy is good! This is the first time I'm aware of your site having technical issues, so I think you are doing just fine. Hope you get things up and running soon!
Posted by: Kathy | November 06, 2013 at 05:49 PM
If you are not using a test/development environment, I suggest using virtualization. Take a snapshot just before deploying new software and, should anything go wrong, you'll be back in business within minutes ;-)
If your server is hosted, this may not be feasible, but then you have another item to check when looking for a suitable hosting service.
Martí
Posted by: Martí | November 07, 2013 at 04:01 AM
Hope the site gets back up soon! Great music on there and I enjoy listening at work and at home.
Posted by: Shelly | November 07, 2013 at 07:56 AM
Hi, what backup software did u use (the once in pictured in the screenshot) ?
Posted by: Kumar | November 08, 2013 at 06:15 AM
Oh. Now I finally understand why everything but two 2007 files and the latest 2013 file were the only ones that claimed to still be available, and when I tried to download anything on Podkicker, only error messages resulted. Sad.
Posted by: Sarah | November 17, 2013 at 11:47 PM
Just as a heads-up. http://magnatune.com/today/today_rss.xml is still unavailable. Last updated November 4th.
Posted by: madjo | November 22, 2013 at 01:44 AM