I know this is kind of baby pirate knowledge but ive always just used a downloader for my streaming service. I have since moved to Linux entirely (massive win BTW, patting myself on the back for that) but there is no Linux-compatible downloader for my specific service. At least not one with the bulk functionality I would like. Any downloaders for Tidal or other sources of high-quality audio, likely to have some relatively niche old death metal? I'm a nerd about the quality.

edit: Just looked at the megathread and there seems to be some tools compatible with Tidal. Regardless, are there any applications that are alternatives? I'd like to see ALL of my options <3

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dan@upvote.au 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Usenet. Plenty of music in lossless (FLAC) format. Use NZBGeek and DrunkenSlug as indexers. Sabnzbd to download. Lidarr and Prowlarr to automate everything. Add an artist, click to download an album, and it'll search for the album, download the NZB file, send it to Sabnzbd to download, then tag and organize the files once it's done downloading.

For music I'd just get a block account: https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providerdeals/. Essentially, you pay for some amount of data (can usually get 1TB for US$5-15), and they usually don't have an expiry date, so it could last you for years. Some providers have monthly plans with unlimited data, but a block account will end up way cheaper if you just want music.

For rarer music, Soulseek is very good. It's a peer-to-peer service from the KaZaA and Napster era, but somehow it's survived until now. Since it's peer to peer, downloads are quite a bit slower (you're relying on the upload speed of individual users - each download comes from only one user) but it's a great community.