I have a folder of MP3s, some of which date back to 1999, just a few years after the format was popularised. Most of them have utterly terrible names (think RIDEONAM.MP3). I think at this point they might even survive the heat death of the universe. And they’ll still be terribly-organised.

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    29·
    4 days ago

    left spotify and started downloading all my music from [COMPLETELY LEGAL AVENUES] and bandcamp. It’s good to have music that Spotify cannot take away from me.

    • tired_n_bored@lemmy.world
      10·
      4 days ago

      I download music from YouTube. Are the “completely legal avenues” better than that? In that case can you provide links in DM so I make sure to block these domains and to promptly inform the authorities? Thank you.

    • kadu@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 days ago

      I have a happy middle ground:

      I pay for Tidal’s student subscription. I leverage the fact Tidal streams FLAC files that can be decrypted by your account to build my local collection.

      So I never actually stream or use their app, but technically am paying for the downloads.

      I tried buying FLACs from companies that actually wanted to sell FLACs but they have ridiculously bad catalogues.

        • kadu@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 days ago

          Yep, they’re regular FLAC files with tagged metadata.

          You can use them as normal. Copy to another device, to an iPod, use them on a video editor, send to a friend.

          This has been going on for ages, Tidal never patched it, so I think they quietly are okay with it because not many users do it anyway and at least you’re paying for the service.

        • kadu@lemmy.world
          4·
          3 days ago

          I think any links would violate Lemmy.world’s policies.

          But a quick search for “Tidal downloader github” will give you several options.

          But the ides is that when Tidal streams to specific devices they basically upload an encrypted FLAC to an AWS host and the device downloads the file and uses your account as the key.

          So people create apps that do all that, but instead of simply streaming the FLAC, they download and save it. They require a paid account, or an active free trial. I pay for the discounted student one, which still gives you access to the maximum audio quality.

          The great part is you get album art, live lyrics, high resolution audio, an organized and properly tagged library with zero work. The output FLACs are regular files - no DRM or weirdness, I use them on a MP3 player.

          • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 days ago

            i gave it a cursory duckduckgo! everything looked a couple years old. I’ll keep digging.

            i wouldn’t mind a dm! if you’ve the time.

            • kadu@lemmy.world
              4·
              3 days ago

              You want a new generation tidal downloader.

              On GitHub.

              So a Tidal downloader new generation.

              One could call such a thing tidal-dl-ng if they’re trying to save some letters, I guess.