On a related note, the single best resource for downloading free music, Free-MP3-Download.net, just got shut down. They were around for almost 2 decades and had a pretty much limitless catalogue of songs and albums that you could get in MP3 and FLAC format. I still have thousands of files that I got from that site, but it looks like the music industry finally managed to put a stop to it.
Remember, if you don't really own it, then piracy isn't really stealing.
I didn't know such a thing was still around, sucks they finally got to it. Gives me memories of the Napster days when we'd exploit the school's T1 all day to download music then I'd bring my parallel port Zip drive to hook up to the school's computer to take the files home to burn to CDs to give to friends. That was the only way, USB wasn't common yet. There was zero network and PC security at school back then and us high school kids knew how to problem solve. As far as I'm concerned those were the glory days of the internet.
I'll give the music industry a bit of credit, they learned to make things reasonably available at not a stupid price. You don't have to get Sony Music+ for $14.99 and that gets you only Sony artists and some scraps they put together to say they have a billion songs. Then oh wait you wanted that artist, well they are a Virgin Premium exclusive, that will be another $14.99.
I used Kazaa. Never like Napster. I have about 650 CD's - I ripped them to 320k upon purchase and then just burn them as required to blank discs so the originals can stay unused in storage.
I must truly be the old fart here. I remember when the only way to get your music on the high seas was to download multi-part compressed archive files on NNTP servers, aka news groups, or on IRC channels.
Now pardon me while I make my way back to my rocking chair. Lol
Best to just use yt-dlp and download music from youtube.
It's not actually hard to scrape from spotify or apple music or anything using a web interface and linux. I would post code to do it, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth. Pretty much every song is on youtube anyway, it's just a bit harder to save a whole album.
Even using a 320 kbps format to download mp3s from YouTube, the quality is just shit. That's why I prefer FLAC files, but even 320 mp3s from albums are better quality. YouTube compresses too much of the original audio during upload.
Seems youtube maxes out at like 130k opus, but on the plus side in ten years you'll hardly be able to tell the difference between that and a live performance.
On a related note, the single best resource for downloading free music, Free-MP3-Download.net, just got shut down. They were around for almost 2 decades and had a pretty much limitless catalogue of songs and albums that you could get in MP3 and FLAC format. I still have thousands of files that I got from that site, but it looks like the music industry finally managed to put a stop to it.
Remember, if you don't really own it, then piracy isn't really stealing.
I didn't know such a thing was still around, sucks they finally got to it. Gives me memories of the Napster days when we'd exploit the school's T1 all day to download music then I'd bring my parallel port Zip drive to hook up to the school's computer to take the files home to burn to CDs to give to friends. That was the only way, USB wasn't common yet. There was zero network and PC security at school back then and us high school kids knew how to problem solve. As far as I'm concerned those were the glory days of the internet.
I'll give the music industry a bit of credit, they learned to make things reasonably available at not a stupid price. You don't have to get Sony Music+ for $14.99 and that gets you only Sony artists and some scraps they put together to say they have a billion songs. Then oh wait you wanted that artist, well they are a Virgin Premium exclusive, that will be another $14.99.
We must be roughly the same era. Loved napster at college. Kazaa? eMule?
I remember one year at college there was a job fair, and one company was giving out USB thumb drives. Probably like 8mb or 16mb or something. Awesome!
People were waiting in line like 20+ minutes just to get one.
Truly the glory days of the Internet.
I will also have a soft spot in my heard for 90s Something Awful and JeffK.
No love for Limewire?
I used Kazaa. Never like Napster. I have about 650 CD's - I ripped them to 320k upon purchase and then just burn them as required to blank discs so the originals can stay unused in storage.
I must truly be the old fart here. I remember when the only way to get your music on the high seas was to download multi-part compressed archive files on NNTP servers, aka news groups, or on IRC channels.
Now pardon me while I make my way back to my rocking chair. Lol
Best to just use yt-dlp and download music from youtube.
It's not actually hard to scrape from spotify or apple music or anything using a web interface and linux. I would post code to do it, but it's probably more trouble than it's worth. Pretty much every song is on youtube anyway, it's just a bit harder to save a whole album.
Even using a 320 kbps format to download mp3s from YouTube, the quality is just shit. That's why I prefer FLAC files, but even 320 mp3s from albums are better quality. YouTube compresses too much of the original audio during upload.
Seems youtube maxes out at like 130k opus, but on the plus side in ten years you'll hardly be able to tell the difference between that and a live performance.