// U2 Bootlegs

How to trade and download U2 bootlegs.

// Trade U2 bootlegs

I am no longer trading bootlegs or videos!

If you are looking for traders I suggest you check out the Google Directory.

The reason I am no longer trading is that nowadays it is very easy to just download bootlegs. If you're having trouble finding and downloading U2 bootlegs, keep reading...

// Download U2 bootlegs

By far the easiest way to download a bootleg is with the use of BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file distribution tool written by Bram Cohen. What follows is a (very) basic introduction to BitTorrent, and an alternative for the use of BitTorrent: Direct Connect. There's also some information about what to do with .flac and .shn files.

// How to use BitTorrent

First you will need to download and install BitTorrent client software, there are many clients available including:

If you are new to BitTorrent I'd suggest that you use the original Bittorrent client, you can always switch to one of the other clients later. (You might want to, because clients like µTorrent and Azureus have a lot more features)

After you've downloaded and installed the client software the only thing you'll need to download a bootleg is a torrent file.

A torrent file is a small file (with the extension .torrent) containing the information necessary for your BitTorrent client to download a bootleg. To download the bootleg all you have to do is to open the torrent file with your BitTorrent client, the client will then ask where to save the bootleg and will automatically download all the files within the torrent, but only if there are any seeders, who are seeding the torrent.

A seeder is someone who has finished downloading all the files and who is uploading it so that others are able download. If there are no seeders, no one will be able to download. Therefore it is important that after you have finished downloading all the files you keep seeding the torrent in your client, so that others can download the files too. Also, the more seeders, the faster the download.

So all you need is a BitTorrent client, a torrent file, and people who are seeding the torrent. But where to download torrent files?

// BitTorrent sites

If you want to download U2 bootlegs with BitTorrent then u2torrents.com is the perfect site for you, since it is dedicated to U2 bootlegs. Another site where you'll find U2 bootlegs is The Traders' Den. You will need to register at both sites before you can start downloading torrents.

// The disadvantages of BitTorrent

So BitTorrent offers an easy way to download, but it has some disadvantages:

If there are no seeders you can't download. Since most people don't seed forever torrents 'die' after a while, which means that they are left with no seeders, and that you won't be able download. Recent bootlegs usually have a lot of seeders, but with BitTorrent it might be problematic to find older material.

Sites like u2torrents.com and The Traders' Den require you to register, but they might have a user limit, so you won't be able to register. (I suggest you just keep trying to register several times a day, someday you'll get lucky...)

But don't panic, there is a good alternative to downloading U2 bootlegs with BitTorrent: Use Direct Connect and join the U2 U2BloodRedSkyHub.

// Direct Connect: The U2BloodRedSkyHub

Like BitTorrent, Direct Connect is a peer-to-peer file sharing application. You will also need to download and install a client, in this case DC++.

With Direct Connect you can download files from people who are in so called 'hubs'. The hub you'll want to join is the U2BloodRedSkyHub, which is solely meant to share and download U2 bootlegs. You need register yourself at their site.

I won't go into the details of how to use Direct Connect, all the information you need is available here, on the hub website.

// Files

Most of the bootlegs won't be formatted as MP3 (.mp3) or WAVE (.wav) files, instead a lot of bootlegs are encoded with lossless compression algorithms, such as FLAC (.flac) or Shorten (.shn). You will need software to convert these files so that you will be able to listen to them, or burn them as an audio CD.

You can convert FLAC (.flac) files to WAVE (.wav) files with FLAC.

Convert Shorten (.shn) to WAVE (.wav) with MKW Audio Compression Tool.