'Debaser' by the Pixies used for world's first 3-D printed record

A new age of music piracy may have just begun out of the offices of the DIY-website Instructables.

In a video and how-to published Thursday, Instructables' assistant tech editor Amanda Ghassaei demonstrates how she's created the world's first 3-D printed records. The first among them was "Debaser," by the Pixies. She's since gone on to print records of Nirvana, Daft Punk and Radiohead, and spoke to Wired magazine about the project.

While the technology isn't quite there just yet -- the records sound awful at about 1/4th of the quality of a low bitrate MP3 -- higher resolution printing technologies could one day make it possible to download schematics from the Internet and have a 3-D printer create flawless, perfect-sounding records with ease.

For her part, Ghassaei gave a nod to that seemingly inevitable future by sharing the raw files for her schematics with users of The Pirate Bay and 3-D printing website 123D gallery.

Although 3-D printing isn't quite a common consumer technology just yet, prices on some of the best selling creation kits have fallen in recent years from tens of thousands of dollars to just a $800-$900 for some of the cheaper, lower-resolution printers. One of the most popular 3-D printers for small-time enthusiasts right now is the MakerBot Replicator 2, which typically sells new for around $2,200. It likely isn't advanced enough be able to print out records, however.

This video is from Wired, published Thursday, December 20, 2012.