It was possible to download lossless FLAC files (they got them straight from Deezer) though, so higher quality than anything downloaded from Youtube etc.
I download it from youtube because that's where I found it, and I'm not entirely sure what's easier than just copying/pasting the link of the page I'm already on. I'm very confident other methods have better quality, but easier is a big statement.
Soulseek uses P2P filesharing. You open whatever software client you're using, search for whatever you want (with any additional parameters you want) and download. If you ever used one of the various Deezer downloaders it is a very similar experience. It is certainly a lot easier than repeatedly copy/pasting YouTube URLs for every song, or needing to play every single song so you can access some little download extension button you've added.
I mean, it means I have to search it elsewhere, but I can see the benefit if I already know a list of things I want. I actually do have to play each song I download because I find the music on youtube in the first place. I don't know I want the song until I've heard it.
We could say the same thing for SoundCloud or any other music hosting service. It's not a reason to do everything on that one platform, especially when better alternatives exist.
I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the concept of using a service because it has content you cannot find elsewhere. That is absolutely why many people still download music from SoundCloud. Whether you do or not is completely irrelevant.
It’s not a reason to do everything on that one platform, especially when better alternatives exist.
You replied with some retarded anecdote about how SoundCloud is not applicable because you speak two languages. No one asked, no one cares.
The point I was making was that, like with YouTube, some music can only be found on SoundCloud but thaf this is not a reason to only ever use that platform to download music. Better alternatives exist; there is no reason to spend 100% of your time using an inferior method just because it is compulsory 5% of the time.
The worst ever suggestion and unfortunately the most upvoted. Do not ever download music from youtube, free-mp3-download was a front-end for deezer with flacs and 320 kbps mp3 and music on youtube is only about 160 kbps, that's kinda okay for streaming but absolutely ridiculous if you want to download and keep it.
I don't understand where you guys get these conspiracy theories about the human ear from, you sound like the people who claimed the human eye couldn't see a difference above 60 FPS. It's just obviously wrong. Stop reading studies and telling yourself you can't hear a difference. Use your ears.
YouTube is absolutely unacceptable quality. The difference is clearly audible even on $5 earbuds. I feel sorry for your ears if you don't hear the difference, but the vast majority of those who care enough to download music will be able to tell the difference.
I personally pay for Deezer HiFi and save the FLACs locally. Friends mostly do the same with Tidal, but both work well for this purpose.
If you want to find FLACs without paying for a service you can check out rutracker. It has torrents for discographies from a lot of famous artists. Alternatively, you could find a stolen account for one of the previously mentioned services, but that goes too far for my morals because you're hurting a normal person with a hacked account.
Despite all the naysayers in the comments, this is the correct answer. No ad-riddled websites, no weird guis. just "yt-dlp < url of whatever you want to rip >" in bash.
Lots of people responding to this need to acquaint themselves with the raw power of yt-dlp. It isn't just for YouTube. You can rip Deezer and other streaming audio services. You can rip pretty much any video site. It even takes RSS and M3U8 links and will rip live streams.
Well I've found you can avoid the extra sounds as long as its available on YouTube music specifically, as that is a music specific platform but you have to only select from the songs section and not the Videos section. You get less selections than you would've before but not really since those extra ones weren't even songs, but rather music videos.
Also Lyric videos basically never have any sounds in them.
(Doesn't address the quality issues since many YouTube videos are limited in audio quality, I've found downloaders that can do it but it's hit or miss).