News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 21, 2008

music

Rip a band’s un-downloadable MySpace music

Posted Apr. 21, ’08, 2:00 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Music

MySpaceDownloads1.jpgBands on the Internet’s social scourge MySpace often post music on their profile pages that isn’t available elsewhere — demo tracks, pre-release singles, covers, etc. And I often desperately want a file of that song to play on my iPod or in my car.

So how do turn some untouchable music on a band’s profile into a tangible audio file for your portable pleasure? I’ve found three ways that, while a little convoluted, get the job done:

  • Audio Hijack Pro - This has been my Method of Choice™; use this app from our buds at Rogue Amoeba to record the tune as your play it. Hijack Safari, hit record, and quickly play the song on the band’s page. When the song’s done, stop the recording. Tada.
  • This tip from Mac OS X Hints - This method’s a little more complicated, but the ideal free alternative if you’re not willing to fork over $32 for Audio Hijack. It’s tricky, requiring you to create an HTML file, scour the profile page’s source code, and work within some tight time frames. But if you’re into the whole DIY web stuff, this is right up your alley.
  • Magic - I haven’t really gotten this method to work, but I have it from reliable sources that magic is actually a great way to download a song from a MySpace page, as well as do a whole bunch of other things normally impossible through conventional means.

There ya go. No more needing to constantly visit the cultural calamity (and website disaster zone) that is MySpace to listen to that otherwise-unatainable half-finished demo track that your favorite band for some reason sees fit to tease you with. This’ll show ‘em.

[Update:] Reader Paul Capewell offers up another solution in the comments:

Or if you’re using Safari you can hit play and then pause on the track you want, go Window>Activity, scroll down to the section for the page you’re on, and you’ll see either file downloading, or a file with a filesize much larger than the average images and files, and this will be your track. Double click it to open on its own, and then save it if you like.

Depending on what the artist has done, the file may even have ID3 tags on it even.

Bear in mind, these files tend to be only 96kbps. But as you say, if there’s an exclusive demo or whatever, it’s definitely worth doing.

Thanks!


10 Comments

Paul Capewell said:

Or if you're using Safari you can hit play and then pause on the track you want, go Window>Activity, scroll down to the section for the page you're on, and you'll see either file downloading, or a file with a filesize much larger than the average images and files, and this will be your track. Double click it to open on its own, and then save it if you like.

Depending on what the artist has done, the file may even have ID3 tags on it even.

Bear in mind, these files tend to be only 96kbps. But as you say, if there's an exclusive demo or whatever, it's definitely worth doing.

April 21, 2008 2:16 PM
Telp Author Profile Page said:

The above tip also works with a lot of movies, including youtube.

April 21, 2008 2:57 PM
Sam said:

And both of above replies highlight how stupid, ignorant & arrogant Mac journalists can be. Especially small ones, who are afraid of a bigger world out there I guess.

As they don't even know what exists in their own (Safari) professed All Things Apple allegiance.

Being I switcher for about a year, I can see why Windows users hate Mac zealots.
And no, it never happened to me, because Mac is not a religion for me, it's a good tool, just a tool that is.

I can almost guarantee, that my reply will never see the light, as them was routinely edited out.

For being unholy I guess. Or too exposing, for arrogant Mac-heads.

BTW, happy Mac user here, with MB, MBP & iPhone. Them hacked and done other heresies, like unlocking & Firefox installing, which actually allows to download audio in question, even easier than with Safari.
(but you have to look up & install some extension, which is unholy thing again I guess. And it may require some thinking, which is probably most insulting ;))

April 21, 2008 7:00 PM
edden amber said:

YAY!! thats my tip lol
=p

April 21, 2008 7:07 PM
Joel said:

I did not know about the activity pannel. very interesting.

The other options are:

1) get a male-male audio cord and go from your output to an input and record an analog signal.

2) SnapZ Pro also works... record a movie but only save audio track.

April 21, 2008 8:59 PM
Pober Saltine said:

Or, simply type the band's MySpace URL into the the address box at http://file2hd.com/?myspacemp3, and immediately get a page with links to all the files the band has uploaded. Voila!

April 21, 2008 10:43 PM
Seth Brown said:

When you use the Window>Activity method, how do you actually save the file? I keep getting text files.

April 22, 2008 6:53 AM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

@Sam: I'm not even sure what your complaint is. As Dan P. pointed out, there's more than one way of doing things using both Safari and external programs. But good job exposing these dangerous *heresies*. We appreciate all your hard work.

April 22, 2008 9:17 AM
Paul Capewell said:

@Seth Brown

If you let the text file load in the window, or download, whatever it tries to do, either go File>Save As, or find the downloaded file, and change the extension to MP3 from TXT or whatever it is.

Should work!

April 22, 2008 12:57 PM
Dave said:

@Seth Brown----

If you copy in the clipboard the video or audio link in the Activity Window, you can then open up the Downloads window and select Paste. The file will begin downloading automatically.

April 22, 2008 8:21 PM

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