How big a role did piracy play in your music obsession?

Music
1

Been thinking a lot about how I got into music recently and ended up writing a bit about it

Curious how important P2P and free music consumption was to you getting into music?

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2

Negligible. Not holier than thou, just never really figured out how to do it.

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3

Yeah, wouldn’t have heard shit without it.

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4

Can you remember any acts you got into because of it? I remember once having Napster with a queue of MC5 that I’d read about in a Lester Bangs essay collection, Rakim who I think was mentioned in a song or interview (maybe by Saul Williams?) and Kid606 who I had heard discussed on a “newsgroup”. Felt like such a rush hearing all of those things in the same day

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5

If we’re counting minidisc recording as piracy, absolutely. If exclusively p2p, I was in my 20s by the time it became easy & properly mainstream. I was 17 when Napster “happened” but people often seem to forget what a nightmare it was to use. Dialup connection, people mislabelling their band’s demo as whatever the most popular song of the week was. I wanted to pirate, it was just really hard!

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6

Cassettes, taping off the radio, taping CDs that I got from the library, making mixtapes for friends, making tape edits ….all piracy, all 100% essential in my own development as a music consumer & later producer

In the digital era piracy was for me more about cracked software and plugins helping me make music and searching for deleted/unreleased rarities/demos & studio multitracks helping me understand how music & recordings are made

So, 200% essential

I would have been locked out of so much culture if it had only been available in exchange for wealth

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7

I pirated a heck of a load of music from the local libraries, tbh.

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8

Not much tbh.

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9

Not as big as Epitonic.com

(We had a Mac when I was a kid so didn’t get any P2P for ages until Limewire came along. Then there was a lot of downloading but mostly of acts I already knew and liked)

10

absolutely massive

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11

my entire teenage music taste was shaped by what.cd. the network maps, the staff recommendations - incredible as a resource. and perfect quality tunes too obvs.

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12

I was definitely more a CDR full of MP3s kinda guy, before hard drives became cheaper

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13

Was all the rage when I first got internet at my gaff around 2004. WinMX, Limewire, Soulseek. All extremely reputable operations.

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14

Same. I feel like I was like a kid in a candy shop because I couldn’t afford CDs and taught myself so much in order to access things I wouldn’t have been able to afford.

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15

AH! That’s the name I was trying to remember earlier. Thank you!

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16

yep old school borrowing stuff from the library to tape.

had no idea how to do p2p type stuff or Napster etc.

17

Sub-question: Were MP3s blogs technically a form of piracy?

18

Sophies Floorboard was a great one of these

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19

I’d still do it now if it werent for Spotify

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20

A huge amount (probably started with Andrew Kendall uploading the babyshambles sessions 20plus years ago) still does now in very, very small ways

  1. when certain labels don’t include a download code with vinyl.
  2. The shithouses that has deleted certain records and they are unavailable for download/streaming/2nd hand purchase (basically that bloke in Norfolk)