LiveNIRVANA.com > Hall of Fame > Josh Van Camp

LIVENIRVANA.COM HALL OF FAME:
Josh Van Camp

If you have been trading for a year or two you have most likely heard this fellow's name at least once. Josh is arguably one of the most prestigious traders in NIRVANA bootleg history. Almost every trader with a good sized collection has traded with Josh at one time or another.

But Josh is not known best for his trading. His claim to fame is instead a NIRVANA mp3 server he established around 1998. Posting several obscure shows a week, Josh's page gave NIRVANA fans a chance to hear material to which they previously had very limited access.

After a short run of encoding his material at near-to-cd quality, Josh lowered the Birate on his mp3s to reflect the concerns of many traders who thought that some of his mp3s were being passed off as authentic digital clones.

Although mp3s are now reviled by most serious traders because of their discernably inferior sound quality, Josh's site was innovative because it gave every NIRVANA fan with a computer the opportunity to listen to the band's unreleased music in a way that no one had attempted before. He broadened access to rare material and nurtured and encouraged a new generation of traders.

His legacy is less visible today than some of the others cited in this section, whose documents live on. However, many traders still reserve particular affection for Josh for giving them access to so much music, and mp3 websites such as nirva.nu are clearly simply picking up where Josh left off.

LiveNIRVANA.com salutes you, Josh Van Camp!