Frequently Asked Questions

Where did you get the idea for JMFan.com?

I was searching for audio from a concert -- and was introduced into the ‘taper’ culture. While I was thankful to find an audio recording of the concert at all, it wasn’t easy to find or get. I began collecting shows in February 2010, and released the first version of the archive in October 2010.

What is in the archive?

John Mayer’s live concert recordings over the past 10+ years, including some John Mayer Trio shows, and a few surprises sprinkled about.

Isn’t downloading music illegal?

Not in this case. Amateur recordings of a live shows is permitted by John Mayer and the majority of venues he plays at. Thanks JM!

Isn’t BitTorrent for stealing movies?

BitTorrent is just a distribution method that allows people to download from many sources (‘peers’) at once by also sharing data they’ve already downloaded. BitTorrent makes it possible to offer this service for free by keeping bandwidth costs manageable.

Why all the folders in the torrent?

I wanted people to be able to find the concert they want (and exclude the ones they don’t) easily. If you don’t want to download concerts from 2010, you can uncheck that folder, and reduce the size of the files you download by 30GB -- with just one click! Cool, huh?

Is it safe to download these files?

Let’s put it this way: they’re no worse than what you’d get anywhere else. The content is sourced from other websites, and hasn’t been 100% tested. If you find an issue with a corrupted, broken, or malicious file, eMail us immediately and we’ll investigate.

The Torrent seems slow - what’s up?

BitTorrent works best when there’s a large number of people sharing files. You can help speed up the entire archive for everyone by leaving your BitTorrent client running whenever your computer is on and connected to the internet. The more people that do this, the faster it gets!

My network is slow now!

That’s not a question -- but you can prevent BitTorrent from impacting your network by giving it about one half to one quarter of your upload speed. If you have 1Megabit upload, you’ll want to set BitTorrent to between 50k and 25k a second.

How do I find a specific concert?

Simply navigate the folders: Year, Month, Day, then City & Venue. Directories labelled ‘FLAC’ contain high quality versions of the performance. FLAC stands for ‘Free Lossless Audio Codec’.

Will you add concert XYZ?

I’d be happy to -- but it’s difficult to find certain shows, because there’s never been a single source for all of John Mayer’s concert recordings. If you have a concert that isn’t in the archive, eMail me at JM@JMFan.com for instructions on providing the files to me.

Where did you get all these recordings?

Sites like TryJM.com and archive.org have large collections, which is where I got the first 80GB or so of concert recordings. Since then, most new material comes from fans like you!

What about bandwidth caps?

Yes, some (evil) ISPs limit you based on ‘data transfer’ per month. If you upload at 20kb/sec for 31 days, you’ll use a maximum of 52GB. Set your BitTorrent client accordingly to avoid overage fees.

When will you post updates?

At most, updates will be posted quarterly if there is a substantial amount of new material and/or corrections. Months when there is most likely to be updates are: January, April, July, and October.