[ryanmcbride]

This brings back such memories. Sometimes I really miss that era of the internet, but deep down I know I actually just miss being that age lol.

I would install Kazaa to download the Kazaa Lite installer, then I'd use that to try and cobble together albums I wanted, all with wildly different bitrates and tags, and sometimes completely wrong songs.

Getting all kinds of nasty viruses from cd key sites to play a burned copy of a copy of a copy of Brood War with my friends.

When I discovered slsk it was like uncovering the city of Atlantis to my teenaged brain.

I really miss how the internet felt like pure magic back then.

[marttt]

Soulseek was a goldmine for those interested in rare/unofficial recordings (including from rehearsals, smaller gigs, etc). I'm from a Small Country, so our alternative music scene has all kinds of surprising links between people. In the early 2000s, when irresponsible mp3-pirating was, like, the most obvious thing to do over here, some of those "well connected people" would put all kinds of crazy "kitchen recordings" online sometimes. Also, lots of vinyl/cassette rips that were not so easy to find. I collected a lot of gems this way, and probably spent hours and hours every week in Soulseek. And, thus, in geeky music.

It was a great environment: one where pirating (alternative) music really did almost feel like a noble cultural act -- as in, hey, we're sharing this stuff and thus help to keep these (tiny) scenes alive. It is quite possible that the fan base of many alternative groups increased somewhat thanks to Soulseek. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking by an embarrassed former pirate. :)

IIRC, the UI of Soulseek was great, too. Really simple and fast. Good times.

[broke303]

was? :)

[ryanmcbride]

We all pretend it doesn't exist so as to not draw unnecessary attention and I'd appreciate it if you'd play along.