I used Napster and Limewire at that time, I believe. But like other commenters have said - 20 bucks in 1999 is the equivalent to $36 or so today. And we did that without being able to pre-listen.

I actually threw Metallica’s St. Anger out the window on the drive home from the record store I was so upset. I’d had a horrible day and everything kept going wrong, even small things. I drove 45 minutes North to the nearest record store, had to walk back out to my car for change (I didn’t have enough cash) and after the first few songs I started to get this pit in my stomach and I just fucking lost it. Rolled the window down at 65mph and threw that thing as hard as I could. And we had very little money at the time. Good times…

Napster was released exactly in 1999, and before that IRC groups were active since the 80's