Where did the MP3s come from?

Nick Vukotic (random person, I don’t vouch for them) on Threads

I love the decade where every major electronics manufacturer was selling mp3 players but no one was asking where the mp3s were coming from

I would love to know what percentage of the music on MP3 players back in the early 2000s was pirated, but the number has to be astronomical. According to this article, in 2005, 20% of people were downloading music via peer-to-peer networks like LimeWire and BitTorrent. It's impossible to find specifics, but the impression most people seem to have is that the vast majority of music on people's iPods and Rios and Zunes were pirated. iTunes certainly helped here, but you gotta think the damage was done.

Not to make everything a comparison to what we're living through now, but I do think that it's notable that one of the most nostalgic, good-vibes products of many of our youths was fundamentally built on stealing from artists. Maybe you didn't (and be honest, didn't you?), but MP3 players and music piracy were hand in hand.