The magic moment was when we all realized, pretty much simultaneously, that CDs and radio were obsolete. And this wasn't from some iterative Moore's Law like growth in hard drive size, it was sudden algorithmic brilliance that allowed music to be compressed small enough to be easily downloaded and shared. Suddenly digital distribution seemed inevitable and obvious. We could listen to whole collections of songs very, very fast. Old bands became popular, and we would sit around for hours playing song after amazing song for our friends. Winamp was the app that made it possible. The skins let us change its look to fit us better, and its music visualizations were an awesome backdrop for parties. A great app and a great time.
It was WRT CPU power. I remember having to use some specially compiled for 486 player to just barely be able to play mp3s. Before that on my 386-40 I was below real time.
This was the days long before P2P, using binaries usenet groups. Or ripping songs yourself, which took quite a long time indeed (like 10 or 15 minutes per song?)
Haha ah yes, I remember being amazed by a friend who could convert WAVs to MP3s faster than ripping the CD to WAV. Good times.
I remember a base Pentium 90 laptop struggling to play MP3s in Winamp, not massively high bitrate either. I could just about play MP3s on a 486 DX2 66Mhz (and discovered MODs etc. at that time too - smaller to download, using floppy disk and a school's internet access).
I was amazed with Grip and its ability to rip and convert straight to MP3s, but it took forever. Good times using RH 6.2.
We live in the future.