[mp3] The Lost Joy of Music Piracy: WhatCD, Oink, and Spotify … A look back at the the golden age of downloading music illegally. ‘For highly-sought after releases yet to hit shelves, other users chipped in on the bounty, creating a massive reward for whichever record store employee was willing to “borrow” a copy from the backroom before the release date, resulting in the website frequently becoming the originating source of album leaks online. The largest request on the website was for “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls,” an unpublished short story by Salinger only known to exist in a locked room of the Princeton Library, where it was available by appointment to read under the strict supervision of staff. “It was basically like a long running joke that it would never get filled,” Brian laughs. “And then somebody fucking did it.” In November of 2013, a What.CD user tracked down one of the 25 copies of the manuscript allegedly printed in 1999 in order to fill the request.’
Remembering the Golden Age of Music Piracy
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2026 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Internet, MP3, Music, Tech.
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