Did you find your music here?

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wantonfiction@reddit

I’m still trying to figure out what a “sub” is.

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SirGothamHatt@reddit

I don't know anyone else that remembers SongSpy.

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SongSpy was probably my favorite. So under the radar it didn’t have a lot of the issues some of the other platforms had. It had that cool ranking structure thing. Probably my favorite thing was all of the little known, obscure bands that you could find on it.

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SuperTerram@reddit

I was even banned (and then unbanned) when Metallica started suing everyone. I don't even care... the music discovery I got from years of using original napster led to decades of addition discovery through a dozen other means... it was just the beginning of a long line of great music experiences that are sadly now just a distant memory. Sorry kids.

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One-Acanthisitta369@reddit

I still have that music in a CDR

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littleredkitchen@reddit

I still have my mixed cds with deep cuts i found off of Napster.

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DiabolicalManiacal@reddit

Yes got the same song 25 times

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Chemical-Cream1291@reddit

Limewire was my jam

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TheLakeWitch@reddit

I learned the hard way about the BSOD a few months after discovering Limewire.

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Own_Tonight2145@reddit

Same I’m honestly still searching for the versions of certain songs I found on limewire that probably only existed there😂

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_dangling_participle@reddit

Started with Napster when it was introduced then started using LW and eventually mostly Kazaa.

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y0shman@reddit

Blink-182 - All The Small Things.mp3.exe

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whatshis_name@reddit

Must be high quality, it's it's a full gigabyte bigger than all the other options.

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MistaRekt@reddit

![gif](giphy|y2i2oqWgzh5ioRp4Qa)

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Feeling_Sea1744@reddit

Kazaa!

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The_Goondocks@reddit

Same on all accounts

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PiccoloAwkward465@reddit

It was fine until I got that sweet private What.cd invite

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PghMe101@reddit

Know of a good replacement for what.cd????

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PiccoloAwkward465@reddit

Unfortunately nothing I know of.

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MistaRekt@reddit

I still remember finding my way into OiNK's Pink Palace circa 2004.

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Rdubya291@reddit

I started with Napster myself. First CD I ever pirated was the Slim Shady LP. Lmao. Went to Limewire a couple years later.

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ddiknosaj@reddit

I too was a limewire man

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Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit

That's where I discovered Heather Harmon

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sonorandosed@reddit

and kazaa

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LizF0311@reddit

Limewire at college my first year with a T1 connection was incredible. We were downloading songs in 4-8 seconds. It was like the Wild West.

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GlomBastic@reddit

Limewire had better P2P interaction. I would find archivists with similar taste, then basically trade hard drives. Found a lot of underground and rare shit along with complete discography of popular artists.

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tarzanacide@reddit

Same! I never got into Napster but my iPod was full of Limewire stuff. I've paid for Apple music for at least the last five years, so I'm sure I've made up for it.

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Chemical-Cream1291@reddit

I downloaded a few things off Napster, but didn’t have an iPod or a CD burner in 2001

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CottaBird@reddit

I was the goody-goody who only used it for live bootlegs and other tracks unable to be purchased in the states. It never occurred to me to use it for music I could buy at the record store. I could have accumulated so much more…

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MainNormal5570@reddit

I was a SoulSeek user

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Sharessa84@reddit

Same. I got into file sharing late, after Napster had been taken down, and this was the big alternative. Later used Kazaa, eMule, and eDonkey.

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rarselfaire2023@reddit

It's still awesome. I download all sorts of things with this. Use search filters to get to specific file types. I wish more people would use it.

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PortOfPotty@reddit

Still the best!

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E6DA@reddit

I didn't know about SoulSeek until 2023. It literally has every trad pub ebook I've ever searched for. Even few of the indie published ones I've searched for.

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Sick_Astronaut@reddit

Wait, Soulseek is still alive and has books?

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E6DA@reddit

They got everything. Since people even host TV & movies. Don't bother though, those take forever to do.

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terminalaku@reddit

still looks the same too. it's a treasure.

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TheConsoleGeek@reddit

In college I would start downloading a couple of songs before class. After class, I would see how many hadn't stopped and actually completed the download over the terrible 56k modem. The music industry made a lot more money off me because of Napster. I'd hear songs I didn't know and ended up going to that store and buying CDs I wouldn't have had otherwise.

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Sharessa84@reddit

Yep. File-sharing was the new radio when the radio started to go to shit. No one needs to hear Metallica 3 times a damn hour.

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whyDidThisBreak@reddit

Same. I bought a ton of cds based off things I found on Napster.

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BlondeCrackHead@reddit

Limewire

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pc817@reddit

Desktop PC and power inverter in the trunk of my car running winamp with a numeric keypad control ran to the front and audio cable running to the head unit come at me bro

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AskTheAdmin@reddit

Kazza!

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wweiss53@reddit

Shaun Fanning did

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truefriend29@reddit

Not me personally, but my millennial brother (he's a hater!!), Brandon, was using Limewire, along with the web search engine, Lycos.👦🏾👋🏽💻💿👨🏽‍💻🎵🛜📶

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mousee3176@reddit

It's all pirate bay these days. 🏴‍☠️

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Garudius@reddit

Limewire and Kazaa

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rainy-brain@reddit

indeed. napster, limewire, and the lesser known (but imo the BEST) a p2p called audiogalaxy. I found the rarest music ever on audiogalaxy, stuff that was impossible to get anywhere else. the way it worked was extremely efficient in my experience. you could search for any file that was known to be available even if the host was offline, then queue it for download whenever the host came online.

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audvisial@reddit

My music AND my husband

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SpaceLemur34@reddit

No, I was in college at the time and everyone on campus shared their music to the network. A guy even wrote a search engine for it.

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wroberts97@reddit

Grooveshark!!

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R0botDreamz@reddit

The question is - do you still have those songs you downloaded? Did they make it through 25 years of computer and phone upgrades? One of my prized possessions is my music folder that I've maintained since the late 90s.

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Drew_of_all_trades@reddit

At the same time Napster was in the news there was another site called audiogalaxy that did the same thing but it went under the radar so it was around for a year or so after Napster was shut down. Great place for one-hit-wonders, bootlegs, and remixes.

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Dry_Ad687@reddit

I still have a hard drive full of mp3s

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Sheshnation@reddit

Linkin Park-Numb.exe

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Gluten-Free-Jesus@reddit

Until Dr. Dre had me kicked off.

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mcvmccarty@reddit

Soulseek

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Ditzy_Davros@reddit

I still have music I downloaded from Napster on my computer. It doesn't sound the greatest after moving to many computers over the years, but it's there.

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DetroitsGoingToWin@reddit

First we listened to music for free, then we bought it, then we stole it, now we lease it.

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SambaTisst@reddit

No, always physical!!!

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KudosOfTheFroond@reddit

There was this really fun Gin N Juice cover by like a bluegrass/jam band that I remember finding on Napster back in HS, we played it constantly before classes

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mutantbabysnort@reddit

Still got my mp3s

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Acceptable-Double-98@reddit

That and lime. Lots of cds to show for it lol

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Bourriks@reddit

I remember that soft was not able to restore an unfinished download. And back in 56k era, unfinished download were many.

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petula_75@reddit

no I stole music there.

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jasonmoyer@reddit

No. I was never ok with stealing music.

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Big_Somewhere9230@reddit

Oddly enough I bought a lot of CDs from some bands that friends and I found on there that I wouldn’t have known existed without it.

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jasonmoyer@reddit

I used Audiogalaxy to grab stuff to sample it before buying it, but I didn't keep things I didn't own beyond that. Which is fine, my own rips were always way better quality even back in the day where a 20GB dedicated media drive felt like a luxury.

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michaelincognito@reddit

Nice try, Lars. I’m not snitching on myself.

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Mememememememememine@reddit

EXACTLY. Who’s asking. And why.

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shawa666@reddit

[Napster Bad!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS6udST6lbE)

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michaelincognito@reddit

Oh man I haven’t thought about this video in 20+ years. This is a deep cut.

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EpistemeUM@reddit

I was out in the first big sweep because I had a song making fun of Metallica. Never forgiven.

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Tootsie_r0lla@reddit

Them: You wouldn't download a car would you?! Me: fucking oath I would

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Active-Ad-2527@reddit

It was so poetic finding out the music for that commercial was stolen

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Tootsie_r0lla@reddit

Haha shit I didn't know that!

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bjgrem01@reddit

And the font on the screen.

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GlomBastic@reddit

The first thing I did when I was thinking of a 3D printer, was to download a fucking gun. So yeah.

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Tootsie_r0lla@reddit

You American?

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michaelincognito@reddit

Yes!! I’d download and 3D print a bootleg car tomorrow if I thought I could make it work.

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Lumpy_Departure_4086@reddit

Napster was the moment when I lost all respect for Metallica. Poor Lars is homeless now and has to beg on the streets because people shared his music on the internet

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StaceyPfan@reddit

Dr. Dre got me.

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DarthBster@reddit

Me too! For 1 effin song, his collab with Eminem forgot about dre! 🤣

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StaceyPfan@reddit

Same here!

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DarthBster@reddit

Haha. I still ended up downloading his discography from archive.org mostly out of spite.

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michaelincognito@reddit

Kind of surprising for someone who still fucks with the beats, still not loving police

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GaspSpit@reddit

Right? Go home, Lars. Not falling for *that* trick!

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Agreeable_Use_8670@reddit

![gif](giphy|KK8ceilixQHRDo5IbB)

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wallabeedan@reddit

started with napster to audiogalaxy and then to soulseek

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Comfortable_Tale9722@reddit

Napster came out when I first started college and they had high speed internet in the dorms. Game changing. 😀

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Twanlx2000@reddit

Same here. I spent money on a CD-RW drive before my junior year of college, which timed perfectly with the Napster launch and our college upgrading to T1. I’m generally a law-abiding citizen, but that’s practically sitting petty crime in my lap!

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ryeemo@reddit

Nailed it

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IceSmiley@reddit

Haha I remember every Black Friday I would buy 100 blank CDs and run out before the next one. I haven't bought blank CDs since 2013

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ouijahead@reddit

Yep. If I could figure it out, anyone could.

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p90rushb@reddit

There were no restrictions back in fall of '99, and the computers in the computer lab had full local permissions. Napster was found on every single one of those bitches, and not only that, but a random library of songs. So late at night I'd log into a row of 10 of these computers, then download whatever was on there to my zip disks (remember those?) then I'd dump that to my own computer, rinse and repeat. The variety was quite good because it was all music that people my own age were listening to at the time, and I got introduced to a lot of new bands/artists this way.

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Comfortable_Tale9722@reddit

My car still has a cd player in it and I busted out my burned cds that simply say “mix” and sometimes the year (2000-2004) and let me tell you the happiness I have had in listening to the surprises on there. It’s a fun kind of Russian roulette.

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wuh613@reddit

I remember being at home and using Napster on dial up. Wondering, do I really want to add this to the download queue? Then came freshman year in the dorms with high speed… That and making a fake ID with my scanner, great moments in tech for me.

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ShillinTheVillain@reddit

I bought a fake ID from somebody in my dorm. They made my birthday 9/11 (I was a freshman in 2002) and if you put the address in MapQuest it was about a mile into the ocean. Never got caught, mostly because bouncers didn't care.

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PiccoloAwkward465@reddit

My dad would take us to his office to use the faster internet there and download AIDS onto his work computer lol

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thewhits@reddit

Same. I had a 30gb hard drive that I was sure I could NEVER fill up. It was full of mp3's in a few weeks.

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sudofsckme@reddit

100% used Napster when I was in HS, made sure the CD player I put in my first car could play mp3s just because of Napster.

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BrvoChrlie@reddit

Tried it. Not for long. Mostly limewire or others. Funny thing is anytime I see the word Napster it reminds of one of those flash cartoons that were popular at the time. Anyway, it was mocking Metallica with their battle with Napster and James is this giant goon and all he can say is “Napster bad” and that’s always what comes to mind.

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BrvoChrlie@reddit

Found it. https://youtu.be/LeKX2bNP7QM?si=L0bStvGdbbYJle_d

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IsThataNiner@reddit

Hello, you've reached Ahnold's Pizza Shop. I'm not here right now, I'm out killing pepperonis.

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mobilize@reddit

Even my mom, who is smart but not incredibly tech savvy, found music on napster. She also proceeded to buy the cds to support the artists she liked and to listen to them on her stereo/headphone setup. My friend also met his wife on napster and had two kids with her, so there's that too.

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_MadGasser@reddit

Nope. I used Win MX

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Johnnys-In-America@reddit

Finally another one! WinMX was awesome for the time.

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sychox51@reddit

Jeez I forgot all about winmx. I used that after Napster died I think

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No_Names78@reddit

I kept scrolling to find my people, here's to the fellow WinMX users 🥂

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ChromeDestiny@reddit

Same here, I only saw the tail end of Napster but I was a big fan of Win MX. Kazaa had it's moments but I mostly found it too janky.

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_MadGasser@reddit

Sounds like we had a similar experience. Kazaa was really buggy.

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

I was either using newsgroups or ftp. Then straight to kicking the llamas ass

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sychox51@reddit

And dcc on mirc! I still remember the day I discovered Usenet and found some obscure three stooges record ripped to mp3 and posted. Game changer

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

I was using XDCC over IRC for music before Napster was a thing. I actually liked that a lot better tbh. I remember using ftp occasionally as well.

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Aqua-Blaze-7@reddit

Oh yes! This was in high school. You could not get that much music without buying like hundreds of tapes or CDs so this was like coming across a music goldmine. And it only took like 40 minutes to download each single, lol.

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MLDaffy@reddit

Yes definitely along with gnutella. Gnutella is what most people remember since majority of programs used it like Kazaa LW BS etc. Once the Nap servers went down it was the next step until ed2k and torrents came along. Some of them are still around like SoulSeek, DC, ed2k, there's even still gnutella ones. Napster, Kazaa, LimeWire, BearShare, WinMX, Audio Galaxy, SoulSeek, Direct Connect++, eMule/eDonkey2000, AOL, mIRC, FTP, Newsgroups, even the shitty websites with Warez split up into 80 files. If it was there I was using it 😂. Was in several Warez groups back in the day uploading/serving/mming/phishing. Internet was way more fun back then.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

Yeah, that was me too. I surprisingly had great luck on the websites with the music and warez split up into 600 zip files. XDCC over IRC was always my favorite as it was way more reliable to download from the bots than fragments over p2p. I'm trying to remember all of my warez sites. astalavista.box.sk was always my go-to for cracks and patches. I remember in early 1997 right before we got a cd burner, I was on a warez site where you would request games and somebody would burn them on a cd and mail it to you. I actually still have that first cd.

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MLDaffy@reddit

Yup I remember AstalaVista that was like the main cracks place. iceWarez off top of my head was one of the pages. I used to run XDCC server on IRC when our porn group ESP from AOL moved to it. Eternal Suppliers of Porn in pr: smut. 😂 I still have the group tag we used to do use on every email/text file.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

Icewarez definitely rings a bell!!! Now that I'm thinking about it, I remember easywarez too.

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MLDaffy@reddit

Yup EasyWarez.com was one of em as well! 😂 Ice Warez was a .net address. They were the most popular at the time..them and Easy were like the Top 2.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

What a time to be alive. Remember this keygen music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoLxU3a-ptg

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Rethink_Repeat@reddit

Napster first, then Audiogalaxy for a while then torrents. Now the last XX years newsservers and Soulseek/Nicotine+

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Giggles_McWiggle@reddit

Audiogalaxy was the best!

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thewayshesaidLA@reddit

Napster > Audiogalaxy > Kazaa > iMesh > Limewire > Frostwire for me.

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Budgiejen@reddit

Fuck yeah.

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RoundTheBend6@reddit

Find no. Get for free, yes. MTV, siblings, and friends.

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thevmcampos@reddit

Not today, Mr. FBI Agent!!

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CunnyMaggots@reddit

Nope. AudioGalaxy and then later on SoulSeek.

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crapbear83@reddit

My brother in law was into this hard when him and my sister were dating. Circa 1999-2003 ish I guess. My highschool years going into early college years. (They got married in 2005). Anyways my sister called it Napterbating. He's Napterbating right now. Oh man, but the CDs he burned for back then!!! Late 90s early 2000s.

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Error_Repeat1579@reddit

Yes and limewire

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Gregory_GTO@reddit

I never really used Napster because the program I had on my PC worked better with YouTube. I would rip the audio from all the music videos I liked and burn it onto CDs. I was a genius when it came to computers and the Internet but sadly due to health issue I am now dumber than a box of rocks.

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DontYuckMyYum@reddit

i did until I got banned from the Metallica bullshit. then I moved to kazaa and limewire.

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shanthology@reddit

Started with Napster but the real hero of my time was AudioGalaxy. You could find the most obscure tracks there. One person in Alaska with the file, a 14kb connection, a week and a prayer and you'd have it.

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monji_cat@reddit

No, from BBS on dialup

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spinereader81@reddit

It was always "fun" when I was knocked offline in the middle of a download.

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PeterPunksNip@reddit

On Kazaa 😂

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FooFightingManiac@reddit

For about a year yes

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redditsuckshardnowtf@reddit

I didn't have internet access or unstand any of this until after it was gone.

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vj83@reddit

Im so old i was using FTP sites before Napster was even a thing.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

I just realized this while writing a reply to another comment about ftp.. if you use the old "/indexof/(content name you want to find)" trick in google, it will still take you to private ftp servers with the content!

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drudman6@reddit

The earliest thing resembling a “meme” was everyone had that cover of Gin and Juice by The Gourds from Napster.

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Good_and_thorough@reddit

Or “Boyz N The Hood” by Dynamite Hack

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_hi_plains_drifter_@reddit

It was also credited to Phish right?

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drudman6@reddit

Yes exactly

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michaelincognito@reddit

That helped me win a trivia trophy on a cruise. Cover song trivia where we got points for the name of the song, original artist, and cover artist. The host played that song and said “no one ever gets this one.” My wife and I got it *immediately*. This was before the days of Shazam or even reliable internet on the ship, but I’m sure people thought we were somehow cheating anyway.

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WalterWriter@reddit

I got really into the punk/diy/indie scene in college from 98-02. Going to 3X shows a week, doing promotion, etc. MP3.com was how I found bands freshman year. My sophomore year roommate taught me about Napster, before it really blew up, so I basically filled my HD and really expanded my horizons. Thing is, it was hard to put together full albums that way, so I actually wound up buying a lot more CDs for 2-3 years to be a completionist. Find half the obscure EP on Napster, then buy the rest.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

> Thing is, it was hard to put together full albums that way I have a funny story about this. You're right, it sucked downloading each individual song because some of them might have been at different bitrates or normalized at different levels. But I downloaded all the songs to Crystal Method - Vegas that way and burned them to a CD. Nero sorted the tracks in alphabetical order, so that's how the CD was burned. I listened to that burned cd for YEARS and it was one of my faves. Then, many years later when I was deep into my 20's I was listening to the album at a friend's house and the songs were all out of order. And that's when I realized that I had been listening to the album out of order the entire time. Even to this day, I can't listen to it how the tracks are supposed to be - I have to listen to it with the tracks in alphabetical order. lol

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ScreenTricky4257@reddit

I was downloading mp3s before Napster, off the newsgroups and on shady FTP sites that sometimes had ratios (upload 4 MB and you can download 40 MB). I never thought Napster would catch on.

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dollarshort008@reddit

Before LimeWire I used Aimster

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Boring-Gas-8903@reddit

I remember the first song I downloaded. “Push It” by Static-X.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

Mine was NIN - Perfect Drug (meat beat manifesto remix)

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Dfiggsmeister@reddit

I never used Napster because I was heavily into using mIRC to download music. I think at one point in college I used kazaa but I avoided Napster because by the time it got popular enough, the whole lawsuit with Metallica happened. I stopped listening to Metallica after that whole thing. They got big because they bootlegged their music and sold it outside of their music contract. Then they get big and Lars decides that fuck Napster, I don’t want our music being bootlegged anymore. That lawsuit not only fucked over music sharing, but it fucked over most other musicians, making it harder to break into music and turning record label corporations into these monstrosities that can sue anybody at any time.

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FREEM_Everlasting@reddit

Man I miss DALNet 🤘

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michaelincognito@reddit

Oh boy, I spent an unhealthy amount of time on IRC when I was young. I’d find myself on DALNet every once in a while, but I mostly stuck to Webchat or Webmaster or whatever they called it. It was a larger network but not one of the “big 3-4.”

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

In the mid to late 90's, our town had a small ISP (remember when we had those??) who hosted their own IRC server. It was the online gathering place for a lot of the nerd crowd during that time. We had a pretty tight little group, and I remember coordinating meetups with everyone from the IRC server at our mall in 1997. That was back when talking to strangers on the internet was taboo. I really miss that group and wish I would have known to keep in touch with them over the years.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

mIRC was my jam before napster. Downloading from XDCC bots was always more reliable for me than p2p from Napster.

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breadmakerquaker@reddit

Nothing says I’m due for a colonoscopy quite like this does.

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ryanfromohio@reddit

When it started up, I was in a dorm room with a T1 line. It was wonderful. Ended up running a FTP server after Napster got shut down.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

My parents were one of the first houses to get 1mb cable internet service in our town in '98. I was always the friend who downloaded stuff for everyone else. I made GOOD money in high school by downloading albums and burning them to cd's for people.

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kissmeimfamous@reddit

I have no idea how I learned about it, or even learned how to use it but mIRC was my shit!!! 0-Day downloads of whole albums, movies, even PS1 games. Mind you I’m far from a computer guy…but where there’s a will there’s a way. What a time to be alive!

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burnafter3ading@reddit

Kazaa

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Moe-Scutus2@reddit

Stole all of my Metallica from Napster I did

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-the7shooter@reddit

I found my identity here.

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SilverIsFreedom@reddit

Man, T1 connection in the dorms with Napster & a CD burner… life never got better. Then 9/11. Welcome to adulthood!

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OhTheHueManatee@reddit

Before I knew about mp3s I had a CD player hooked into the microphone jack of my computer. I recorded songs in Wav files that were huge and listened to them that way. When I learned about mp3s/Napster I cried with joy.

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colcol9696@reddit

lol I used to use so many random email addresses to get the free trial. That was before “verification code” days.

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MartialBob@reddit

Nope. I wasn't interested in Napster until after they shut off access in my college dorm. After that I started used Audio Galaxy.

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Jerkrollatex@reddit

Nope but I did dub VHS tapes and make mix tapes from borrowed CDs.

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Emotional_Signal7883@reddit

Freestyles people recorded off NY and LA hip-hop radio stations and uploaded.

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Admirable-Reason-428@reddit

Yes! By the time Napster was around, I had started only buying music on vinyl. My friends would give me shit for downloading so much music but I was also buying way more music at the time

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birdbandb@reddit

Any love for datpiff?

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thesupineporcupine@reddit

Fuck. Yeah. It was the goat

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FeelTheWrath79@reddit

I think that napster happened while I was on my mormon mission. I got to college in 1998, and people used an app called scour.net. I discovered a few bands like apocalyptica and others. Then when I went on my mission, I didn't have access to any of that. I got home in 2001 and scour.net didn't exist anymore.

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Parking_Pineapple730@reddit

I sat listening to the radio with my tape recorder ready to record when my favorite song came on. Also got CDs from the library. Signed up to some of those record label free CDs and you only pay shipping deals too. Or that’s how I remember it. Later on used Napster when it first came out and thought it was incredible. But not for full albums. 56K modem. Are you kidding? But I was accumulating enough individual songs that I started saving up to buy a Diamond Rio mp3 player.

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yeeaarrgghh@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/l9pnw2qdf4eg1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5da97920545147b40ae7cc11a32a8aabbe1b5d6

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Parking_Pineapple730@reddit

🤣 love this

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dharialezin@reddit

Crap I'm old!

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GarblingCumfarts@reddit

Napster was cool because I discovered some music I never heard of cause I felt like randomly downloading it. Aphex Twin is one that comes to mind. I downloaded his song Flim and was like "what gold did I just dig up!?" and it went from there. It was also nice because I couldn't afford tapes in the 80's so I finally got to listen to all of people's discography like Oingo Boingo, Devo, Thomas Dolby, etc. Considering all I listened to in 2000 was NuMetal and Industrial music, it was nice finally opening up my world to great works.

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thedatsun78@reddit

Soulseek

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randysavagevoice@reddit

Here's a deep cut. Anyone use Aimster?

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rigidlynuanced1@reddit

I worked for Morpheus for over a year. Internet startup was definitely a fun place to be

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ReadyAimTranspire@reddit

Napster, Limewire, KaZaa And mostly I downloaded stuff I already knew about, but I did find a few bands that I ended up with while downloading the planet [Fightstar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fightstar) is one of them, I randomly downloaded *Grand Unification* and rocked that album hard on a burned CD in my car

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JuliusSeizuresalad@reddit

That’s where I got my faves like don’t worry by happy by Bob Marley and oops I farted again by weird al

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fromthedarqwaves@reddit

Yes. And 30-45min later I’d have one mp3 downloaded.

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Highlander_1518@reddit

Back in the day it was a combination of Napster, Kazaa, WinMX and SoulSeek.

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MoonlitBlossoms@reddit

The hours I spent on Napster.. Man, I absolutely loved Napster. Then of course I had to listen to what I downloaded on Winamp. 😄

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ninaslazyeye@reddit

Yup, got banned for downloading one goddamn Metallica song.

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_hi_plains_drifter_@reddit

Me too

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HeywoodJaBlessMe@reddit

Yes, then Soulseek

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pleasetrimyourpubes@reddit

Audiogalaxy

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rarselfaire2023@reddit

That one was weird. It would combine 2 different files sometimes. First time i downloaded Sigur Rós, it combined one of their tracks with a reverby black metal track, I was like this is the coolest band ever.

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rarselfaire2023@reddit

It still works. Everyone download and use it please!

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r0ck0@reddit

Soulseek is still up and running, funnily enough. ...I think. Been about a year or two since I used it. But was still going strong then. Really good for more niche music not found on torrents.

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HeywoodJaBlessMe@reddit

Nice! I remember having about 250 GB of my personally-ripped music collection available on SoulSeek and one user dm'd me to berate me for how poorly it was organized, lol.

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r0ck0@reddit

> berate me for how poorly it was organized Haha, what a dickhead. As in just whinging about the folder structure? Crazy that people would put themselves through even caring about that at all, seeing there's the id3 tags.

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HeywoodJaBlessMe@reddit

yeah, it was something like that. This was like '07 so I dont remember their exact complaint by my response was something like "Dude I dont organize my files for your enjoyment" and they just shut up and downloaded some stuff. Somehow that's the memory that sticks with me on Soulseek, besides finding so much good stuff that I couldn't elsewhere. I might have to check it out again, thanks for the heads up!

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tarzanacide@reddit

I'd forgotten that one! Those were simpler times.

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_Face@reddit

There were far superior options if you were tech inclined.

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Noise_Loop@reddit

I used Soulseek

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yomamaeatcorn@reddit

Eventually... FTP user in the 95-97 era. L: mp3 P: mp3

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newfranksinatra@reddit

weezer_ozma_gameover_demo.mp3

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ArtVandeslay@reddit

Are you a cop?

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Belafan1@reddit

people still us torrents cause. a lot of music isn’t on physical media the labels are shooting their selves in the foot to just put on streaming only.

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MochiFluffs@reddit

Napster was my jam because it had all the European techno that I was into at the time (Hackers was also my top movie- I was young). I actually got a threatening cease and desist letter related to Lars and Metallica simply because I downloaded one of their song, which I had deleted after a few minutes due to it not being so good. Never listened to Metallica after that.

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SilentJoe27@reddit

Yeah, but my computer had a faulty hard drive and Napster got shut down during the time it was being replaced.

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Tank-Pilot74@reddit

Napster bad. Lars says so.

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MarvelousT@reddit

Who else besides John Mayer owes their career success to Napster as much as their own talent?

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manofredearth@reddit

*You* found *my* music there

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chrisxstyle1182@reddit

Bearshare was mine.

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HotRiverCpl@reddit

+1 for Bear Share!

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chongax@reddit

No. Yes.

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thewhits@reddit

my freshman year in the dorms was 1999 with a T1 line...so yeah.

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MonkeyBoy0420@reddit

Music. Movies. Shows. Porn. You name it. Hell I even waited in line for 24 hours to get tickets and go to their free concert

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Pepperjones808@reddit

Nice try Lars

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withbellson@reddit

I did find some mislabeled and misattributed music here, yes! But then I gave up and started buying CDs from the dollar bin.

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DrippyCheeseDog@reddit

In 98 I saw Modest Mouse at my university. It was not a good show. Walked away not impressed. A year later gave Talking Shit about a Pretty Sunset. The next day I bought all the Modest Mouse CDs I could. Thanks, Geritol.

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cbih@reddit

Mostly, no. Napster sucked ass. P2P didn't get good until Soulfire and Limewire. I downloaded the most music via torrent, by far. That downloading one song at a time stuff sucked.

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Phyukredd_tit_gydlin@reddit

I used soulseek

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hypo11@reddit

I used Napster a little but what really stands out for me was actually pre-Napster and it was called Hotline. That was teenage me’s favorite source for not just MP3’s but pirated software and adult materials.

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Zerkcie@reddit

I was one of the people that got banned because of the Metallica crack down. So then Limewire it was! 🏴‍☠️

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Kitchener1981@reddit

Limewire for me.

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StanleyCupsAreStupid@reddit

Napster, then Limewire, Kazaa and dabbling with Morpheus a bit. Fuck Lars.

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tylerd9000@reddit

I just started college when it started to become popular. It used so much bandwidth at the campus that our IT blocked it. I had two alternatives: AOL music bot channels and MIRC. AOL one was pretty good until they finally cracked down on them. MIRC was my only choice. Anyone else remember using those bots that gave you lists? Fun times.

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_WeSellBlankets_@reddit

I can't remember why I wasn't able to use this on the Family computer. But I got a PC for college about a month before going or so and started downloading like crazy. And then got to college and had crazy fast internet, but Napster went down pretty much as soon as I got to college. Then it was LimeWire and Kazaa.

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bigmikekbd@reddit

Soul seek is where I could find all my obscure world hardcore punk from the 80’s

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PortOfPotty@reddit

Found so much obscure stuff on there! 70’s psych rock for me! Haven’t searched for something yet that I could t find!

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bgva@reddit

Not only did I find my music here but when I came home for Thanksgiving 2000, I tried downloading music home and wondered why it was taking hours to download a three-minute song. Forgot that I had the luxury of an Ethernet connection in my dorm.

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JJD8705@reddit

Kazaa and Limewire. Trying not to download a virus.

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Oxybeles@reddit

IRC channels mostly, but eventually LimeWire/Kazaa/Morpheus

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gullyfoyle777@reddit

Winmx, limewire, then Napster.

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Harinezumi@reddit

Audiogalaxy was the one for me. Got a ton of trance DJ sets there, which I still listen to when I need to get in the zone for coding.

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Candid_Koala_3602@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/4s9jtzy0y4eg1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=759d82c8b934d28dc8606a28b24a3fc37ce2a1a5

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Good-Bandicoot-2152@reddit

For a while but I moved to Limewire when that got popular. Bearshare was always a lot more risky. Or at least felt that way.

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mary7roses@reddit

No but when I was in broadcasting school in 2003, thats when they were trying to crack down on the illegal downloading and one of our projects was to make a commercial. We made one for Napster, it was a lot of fun!

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TheLeener@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/z2n74dtix4eg1.jpeg?width=961&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08713a70da625db2af7da67821f72b5782a1e1a3

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Silly_Scientist_007@reddit

Find? No… Steal? 💯

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37iteW00t@reddit

DL’d every Metallica file I could find, and I’m not really a fan, just wanted to steal food from Lars’ baby’s mouth

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Tasty-Property-434@reddit

Banned by Metallica for a CD I actually purchased and ripped myself. I never bought another Metallica album again.

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Lazy_Squash_8423@reddit

Found my music and learned how to battle viruses on my computer.

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Primer50@reddit

Napster was ok but the audio quality was crap. Lots of random static or in the middle of the song you would have a vlipp. I was a dj during the time and would have to really proof each song ..Audiogalaxy was way better .

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10RunRule@reddit

![gif](giphy|CoejwVQBgdlKg)

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Dumdumdoggie@reddit

Soulseek.

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Ambitious-Concern-42@reddit

For a time, sure. Eventually I learnt to appreciate lossless downloads from UseNet instead. However, that meant eventually burning to them to CD, which also meant printing off the CD labels. It all became a pain. Now I have binders and binders of these CD's, and frankly, I don't listen to them. I listen to my commercial CD's mostly, and LP's from before that.

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expos1994@reddit

I used bearshare. I liked the interface and I felt it did a better job than others at making sure something downloaded successfully even with many connection interruptions.

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ApatheistHeretic@reddit

Nice try, RIAA...

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Ckn-bns-jns@reddit

Napster in my dorm room at first (‘99/‘00) then they got banned so I used Limewire and Kazaa after that.

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fashiondiva1984@reddit

Winmx it was a gem for me that and Limewire.

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djunderh2o@reddit

Endless amount. Going from dial up to dsl made it too easy.

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BadAtExisting@reddit

Used Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire. TIL people had a “go to” software for pirating music

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Forsaken-Society3524@reddit

Yup, I used them all too. Toss in Morpheus, Kazaa Lite, Win MX, bear share, and Mirc. Early Napster was the best though, I found Limewire to be too infested with corrupt files.

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dementedmoo@reddit

Yeah, especially etallicaM

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Quick_like_a_Bunny@reddit

I did until my college roommate’s boyfriend downloaded a ton of fucking Metallica to my laptop. I was one of the people who got banned 🙄 I never switched to Limewire, which probably saved me from tons of viruses at least

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Boomerang503@reddit

Nope, I found it here. https://preview.redd.it/d8ys0avls4eg1.png?width=430&format=png&auto=webp&s=e402ed7f4f1c691dc9274036540881a424d835bf

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moarlo@reddit

Napster, limewire then torrents on mirc

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Forsaken-Society3524@reddit

Yes!! Mirc. I used to download music videos off it and then rip my own dvds. I had a retractable head unit in my Camry when they were new.

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SpritetheRight@reddit

I cannot confirm or deny

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AustinDood444@reddit

I used Limewire.

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CokBlockinWinger@reddit

Nope, I bought my CD’s.

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cobain98@reddit

Yup! Until Metallica got me kicked off! Never forgave them for that!

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whittlebibbit@reddit

Hmmm not pirate bay fans? Or utorrent? Shit there was another one escaping my brain ( not limewire) But those were the days. Watching crap movies shot on handheld video recorders the people walking around mid scene and the tin can audio. I know we are talking music but man that was a different time.

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Apsmithy@reddit

Audio galaxy!!

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UnicornMeatball@reddit

Very briefly, but I switched to Limewire and Kazaa before discovering mIRC

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squashedjosh@reddit

Did any of you get music from ftp sites found in irc chatrooms? I I feel that predated all of the apps.

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JaxxisR@reddit

Only until I discovered KaZaa

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StillhasaWiiU@reddit

I missed the entire Napster life cycle. Joined the military before it started and didn't have access to a personal PC until it was gone.

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RongelBringer@reddit

Kazaa

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Pruritus_Ani_@reddit

Yeah I used Kazaa too, I remember waiting over 2 days to download the second matrix movie only to discover when it finally finished downloading that it was just the first movie with the file renamed. I was gutted.

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Standsaboxer@reddit

This feels like how every comedy song was labeled a weird al song on Napster.

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Darkest_Rahl@reddit

Never really used that Napster. Limewire or bearshare were my regular ones that I "trusted"

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GlomBastic@reddit

I had few people I met on limewire that had my taste in music. It was slow but we traded hundreds GB of rare, bootleg, vinyl. Pretty sure most of these recordings aren't available anywhere completely lost to time. But, because of that, I can get away using all these underground samples without a copyright strike.

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Skier_D_Kat@reddit

Yes. Some bad metadata is why I had it in my mind that The Wallflowers sang Wish You Were Here.

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WanderingGenesis@reddit

The goat. https://i.redd.it/dzz10gx1j4eg1.gif

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theonlyjaykever@reddit

Hell yes! Loved AG - had so many hard to find bands at that time.

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WanderingGenesis@reddit

Also rip Josh greenberg. https://preview.redd.it/kq3qah9aj4eg1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6b50f7ea970d2855b8532f35e0038c099657734

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Money-Dark2403@reddit

Napster was the OG. Limewire was a cheap imitation.

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linaraq@reddit

I prob still have mp3s from Napster…

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RemoveParty4062@reddit

So much music was downloaded from Napster. Used It everyday

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cryptolipto@reddit

Soul seek

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AwkwardFactor84@reddit

Yes I did. I had a mini disc player with a huge catolog of napster music

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Daemon213@reddit

Napster then Limewire

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iill_communication@reddit

Gigs and gigs of music. Once it went down, it was on to Bearshare, Limewire, Kazaa, etc. None were as good as Napster IMO.

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theMirthbuster@reddit

No, I found other people's music there.

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actionerror@reddit

Yes and viruses

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y0shman@reddit

Smash Mouth - All Star.mp3.exe

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jolly_rodger42@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/uwkq9ykxk4eg1.jpeg?width=1816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f623c44dbdc7f0c42031dfd84a93c64cd61b1db Yup

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Dimplefrom-YA@reddit

yeah. surprised i never got arrested.

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zoosha2curtaincall@reddit

Oh yeah, I was there at the start. Started college in 1998 and I was literally going onto FYP sites and kind of just seeing what they had. Those sites had upload/download ratios too (you had to upload 1 MB of new stuff for every 10 MB you downloaded, etc.) The arrival in spring/summer 1999 of a program that just let you search and pull mp3s from one central source was amazing.

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SevereMany666@reddit

Yes! Stupid ass Lars! How does he think Metallica got known at all!? It was called tape trading an analog this.

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broke_fit_dad@reddit

![gif](giphy|CRbvUItILGRs4)

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Natural-Ad-3666@reddit

I spent 30 years thinking that the Grateful Dead sang “stuck in the middle with you” thanks to Napster.

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ArtisanalMoonlight@reddit

PirateBay

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AshDogBucket@reddit

No, I was morally opposed to it because of how it interfered with artists' rights. I never used any of the illegal music download sites

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Material-Jacket3939@reddit

I found other people’s music there.

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longlivelevon@reddit

NAPster BAaaad! FIRE BAAAD! Beer good!

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Big_Biscotti5119@reddit

Kazaa and Limewire

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LemonSkye@reddit

Never used Napster. We were an AudioGalaxy, WinMX, and LimeWire/FrostWire household.

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small___potatoes@reddit

This exploded when I was a freshman in college. Everyone on our floor used and shared Napster for about a year.

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Tornadoboy156@reddit

Was a Soulseek user, still am too

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jj26meu@reddit

Kazaa is where it all started.

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Johnnys-In-America@reddit

Hell, no! I used WinMX until it was sadly shut down, and then SoulSeek for many more years afterward. But I must've been in the minority or something, because not many other people seem to know of those.

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FRNLD@reddit

Napster then Limewire then BitTorrent. I probably have some external hard drives somewhere with tons of music.

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packetlag@reddit

In my hs cs computer lab. Shit was downloaded on all of them

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ChilliBoat@reddit

I didn't use napster, just remember beign 13 years old and learning of it because of the Metallica lawsuit that happened to playing on a random tv tuned to the news station at a goodwill. Im pretty sure same night I downloaded Limewire and eventually Mirc to download via ftp. Arghhh matey!

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Britown@reddit

Yes, I was there when the Lillywhite Sessions saga happened.

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Apprehensive_Map64@reddit

Yeah, also emule, limewire and imesh

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eyeloveyoureyes@reddit

Only when Mr Ulrich had a recommended a good song.

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mitrie@reddit

Find music on Napster? That's not how I remember doing it. I definitely acquired music there, but I still *found* music from the radio / magazines / friends.

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NoxKyoki@reddit

That’s ONE way I remember finding music. 🙄

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qwer1234abcd@reddit

My sophomore year in high school we had to do a presentation on step-by-step instructions of “ how to do something” basically practicing PowerPoint. I taught everyone how to pirate music on Napster. 🫠 My teacher thought it was great. Haha.

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lmpcpedz@reddit

Napster + recording songs to CD and having a playlist you can take to your car afterwards was a "holy shit" moment. Then Limewire came around and we could continue the unfinished download instead of having a half downloaded mp3. The internet was evolving super fast in those days.

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JeffTheAndroid@reddit

Never.

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detourne@reddit

Not finding artists, the only music sharing site where I found new artists was AudioGalaxy.

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tmanarl@reddit

Definitely remember downloading Napster during ITBS class and installing it on the school computer.

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walrus40@reddit

I remember arguing “stuck in the middle with you” was not a Bob Dylan song just because it was listed as a Bob Dylan song.

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gooch_norris_@reddit

Morpheus

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cid73@reddit

I was scrolling though the comments wondering if my memory had failed and I was misremembering…until you came for me with a nostalgic lifeboat.

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pmo0710@reddit

Some, but there was a number of spots; scour, audiogalaxy, limewire, win mx, my colleges network. Napster was a spot but not the spot. I got banned iirc for downloading pretty woman which was hilarious considering Roy Orbison had been dead for over a decade at that point.

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BirdBrain_99@reddit

Napster, and then I think Limewire, and then Kazaa. All the piracy. Sorry Lars.

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johntwilker@reddit

More limewire but yeah. Mostly like others. Hear a song go look for it. Not so much discovery

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EverybodyPanic81@reddit

No. I used Limewire.

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joelkeys0519@reddit

Yep. And now I teach music copyright law as part of my music classes 😁

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Trixie1143@reddit

I want to live... Like animals.

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nopester24@reddit

nice try... narc!

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Key_Permission_3351@reddit

I was very aware of the drama--including enjoying the South Park episode mocking Lars--but I was in just after things moved to torrents and Megavideo.

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WaterAirSoil@reddit

Hellyeah and I’ll do it again

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Head-Studio2727@reddit

Hell yeah !!!! An hour at least to download a highly sketchy version of a 3 min track from my fave pop punk band. Memories ugh 😩 💩💩

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rekep@reddit

Fck Metallica.

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BattleBrisket@reddit

You wouldn't download a car...

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Adorable_Goose_6249@reddit

Limewire was my go to

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EtTuBrutAftershave@reddit

No, but I saw Cypress Hill & Limp Bizkit for free thanks to them lol. And Lars was right.

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PatchworkGirl82@reddit

No, I had a couple of really good radio stations that I listened to, or I'd talk to the guy who ran the local record shop (and ran a big bootleg recording operation under the table. I still have some of those tapes)

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