Have you pirated songs during the 1980s? (feddit.online)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by animemann80@feddit.online to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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At the time, walkmans were trending: people would use recording devices to record the song if it played via the radio or at a concert. You would know at least one friend who has a legit copy (vinyl or cassette) "borrowing" that for the purpose of pirating music, in which that finished recording is replayed on a walkman to listen.

The invdividual uses a voice recorder, the ones with cassettes to store audio but what could happen is that you can capture other audio cues irrelevant to the song (door opening or people speaking in the background). It's kind of volatile in that sense, unless you are in a room that's dead silent and soundproof capturing the audio.

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[-] rozodru@piefed.world 4 points 1 day ago

yeah I started young.

in the 80s Fischer Price had a kids tape deck that had a microphone attached to it. so you could put a blank tape in it and then use the microphone to record whatever you wanted. the quality wasn't bad. so I'd make "mix tapes" for my friends of NES game soundtracks or songs off the radio. with the NES game tracks I would then try to sell the mixtape. songs from like the Batman game, Battletoads, Contra, Mega Man, etc. so I'd make the "first run" recording by holding the microphone up to the TV and then use my Dads stereo that had two decks to copy the "master" to other blank tapes and then sell them to my friends for like $1.

I'd then take the money I made and rent more games to rip the soundtracks and also buy comic books.

[-] joulethief@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

That sounds like so much fun

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2026

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