Thread: Spar 8 Tracks
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Old April 14th 16, 02:04 AM posted to alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
frschoonover
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Default Spar 8 Tracks

On Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 3:39:57 AM UTC-4, Andy wrote:
So an early day napster or pirate bay type thing you hear about all the
time.
or the good old use net news groups that not many use any more
maby spar was run by noodles


You're possibly joking with the Charlie "Noodles" Nudo reference in regards to Spar, but Spar was actually located in Nashville Tennessee during the time that they were in business. Though they did mostly country music themed 8-Track tapes, they actually released tapes in a variety of music styles. As I said, they weren't in business very long as competition from other music pirates began taking over the free way of music. The sound of the tapes from the competing music pirates varied. Sometimes, they would record records onto tape and sell them. I have a pirated tape of Willie Nelson called Gold 'Til Now, which features some of his hit covers that were taped from records. They also copied from other 8-Track's as well using a duplicator. Spar simply used it's own musicians to record tracks and have singers with freaky voices that can sound like a particular performer. The money that people paid when they purchased their tapes went to pay their musicians and singers, while they kept some of the money to themselves. Plus, they even stated on their tapes "All fees and royalties paid", which were mostly token payments to music publishers to maintain a semblance of legitimacy.

Music piracy was around way before the internet and still continues to flourish to this day. Bootlegging became a thing when they released the infamous Bob Dylan demos bootleg "Great White Wonder", which I happen to have in my ever growing vinyl collection, and even to this day, bootlegging flourishes. It will continue to flourish as long as people buy bootleg records and CD's to add to their music collection.

Thanks again.
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