Know those records that you insert into a vinyl record player? Basically those, but pirated since a real one costs money when you purchase them at official music retailers. It involves the process of obtaining a legal copy then using wax molds (to recreate a record) and specialized tools (prevent quality loss) duplicating the record. (Also, “Bone Music” existed in the Soviet Union by printing music by using x-ray films).
I’m old enough to remember when owning record players was the norm, but I don’t remember anyone pirating anything - they weren’t considered expensive. Cassette piracy in the 80s and early 90s - now that I do remember.
However, it certainly was a thing. In the USSR they figured out how to do it on discarded x-rays - which, I have to admit, is the most punk thing ever.
Most people I know bought records, but used reel-to-reel to copy them.
Later it was cassettes to copy them.
Never saw anyone try to copy the physical record itself.
If you don’t know what it feels like to try and save your prized In Utero cassette with a cheap BIC pen after it had been chewed up by your buddy’s car player, have you even lived?
I’d never heard of the discarded x-ray thing before reading your comment, and then it came up in a podcast I listen to about the world of marketing. This topic of this episode was Flexi Discs. Pretty neat topic I’d never heard of before.