napster, kazaa, limewire, audiogalaxy are the big ones I remember in the pre-torrent era

hell I remember there were PCs at some kiosk at the mall that random folks had installed Napster on and a bunch of random folks had downloaded random stuff on.

I burned so many audio CDs. Even if it was just to add one single new song, since one song could take like an bour or so to download before we got broadband.

When mp3 cd players became a thing, that was a magical time. Before iPods and before the Creative Nomad, WAY cheaper, and some could even read CD-RWs.

I even sold a few mix CDs, with nicely formatted printouts for the slim jewel cases.

What an era.

Torrenting isn’t a slang term for pirating, you can legally torrent things it’s just a file transfer protocol

I’m guessing “SilentStriker” Is also you

No way, that’s illegal!

I would say “nice try FBI!”, but I think they have their hands full at the moment.

I have been to parties (granted not many compared to my peers) around that time period so Im going to say yes.

The cassette era was fun. Copies all the way down, they were more convenient too, often you could fit two albums in one 90 minutes tape.

A lot of recording from the radio, often late at night when there were less ads, the DJ had less to say and played more obscure stuff.

Pretty sure back then we didn’t even call it piracy. It was a normal, and perfectly legal thing to do. I remember my uncle and parents copy songs to casettes so 10yo me could listen to my favorite songs on my casette deck. We shared audiobooks with the neighbourhood kids (without copying them). We made mixtapes for the car stereo. And a new mixtape for every road trip. We also “pirated” the TV. Have the VHS record the Star Trek episode because I wasn’t home on thursdays at 4pm. Or record some awesome blockbuster movie to re-watch it later.

Nice try, RIAA!

What? I thought this was a maritime comm.

Kazaa + Linkin Park + mp3 player = <3

I have recorded songs off the radio onto cassette. I have made mix tapes. First off records, later CDs. There was a general trade going on at school among friends. Somebody would get a new album on tape or on CD and when the owner had listened to it enough times it would make the rounds so people could record it for themselves. Musical socialism.

I have made Minidisc mix tapes as well. I went as far as recording concerts from VHS onto Minidisc. Adding track names was harder than T9 texting and took fucking ages.

I ripped and burned CDs, some of them are still stashed away in an attic somewhere.

I don’t remember the infancy torrenting service that we used around the turn of the century. It wasn’t Napster. I also made mix tapes of downloaded songs onto CD. To play more easily because there weren’t any iPods yet but everyone had a stereo.

Now I stream the music I used to steal. Can’t feel great about it because I know the artists get next to nothing for it.

I miss having a good stereo. Now it’s crappy phone speakers or compressed Bluetooth shit.

Apart from the cassette and CD I had as a child and the occasionally listing to the radio in someone else’s car, I think I’ve never not listened to pirated music.

Yeah, used to have a double tape deck for recording tapes I’d borrowed.

Then a CD tape deck, samesamebutdifferent.

Also had two VHS linked up in series so go to the video rental place and rent a fillum - press play on one and record on the other.

Taping films off of the TV as well.

Never did the tape off the radio though, was never quick enough

I had a bunch of c-cassettes where every song started with the radio DJ talking over the intro and ended with the radio DJ or a commercial starting to play over it. Thank god for cd-r, that cassette thing didn’t last too long. It was pretty annoying to wait 40-60minutes for the song you wanted to start playing and often it would be ruined by the radio DJ talking endlessly over it.