This is during the era before Spotify existed: during the time CD's were big along with the infancy of iTunes including the first iPods during the early 2000s (third party sites is where users uploaded mp3 files of songs, the full length available for free download) my cousins would often download entire albums.

The same crap generations before did with vinyls (with a wax mold, used to etch the soundtrack onto a wax copy but audio is shit) since buying an official copy from a record store isn't cheap for some people. I've heard "torrented" songs from cassettes (via a tape recorder) when the radio played a song, press record.

Music stores in the 90s would sell CDs of the latest hits from known artists of the time, a friend would buy a copy then rip the hell out of it by "pirating" the entire album onto a blank CD-R. Pirates did the same with concerts of famous singers, placing a tape recorder on the side adjacent of where the singer would perform.

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[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 23 points 7 hours ago

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.