How to Leech from Spotify

by Pasikrata

Tools Needed

Sources to obtain music for free exist all over the web, as one may well know.

Choices range from music torrents to streaming services and music blogs.  However, there are times when music fans are unable to locate the music for which they are looking, or are unable to download the music for convenience.  This is where Spotify enters the picture and, along with the program Replay Music, performs the task.

Although debate exists about leeching files and can become quite heated at times, we're not here to create any controversy, but demonstrate how simple it is to obtain music from a large source like Spotify and bypass the streaming only service.

Let's get started.

Open up your Spotify program.

Then start Replay Music.

Your initial step will involve choosing your settings in Replay Music.  You'll want to make sure that you choose a decent bit rate from which to leech your songs.  A low bit rate won't give your songs the due they deserve.  I choose to use the 320 kbps bit rate.  Others may choose a different bit rate.

To set up Replay Music properly, go to "Settings" and choose the "Input" tab.  There you will see a choice of where you want your music files to be saved.  I save mine to the desktop so I can get to them quickly and easily.  You will need convenience with this as you might need to tag each song.  Leeching does take some work, but it is worth it once you have that album you've been wanting for a long time.

When it comes to settings, you may of course choose your own.  However, I will suggest the settings I use that I've found work pretty well.

Next, make sure your input source is "Audio Driver."

Then enter "5" in the "Stop Recording After Idle" box.  It's a good idea to choose "5" as your idle time because with leeching, if you have a song that has a dead space in it, Replay Music will think the song is over and stop recording the song.  Five minutes is a good, safe number to use.

Now, click on the Splitting tab.

Here, I have the settings as follows: check the "Automatically Split Tracks."  You don't want to use their default settings, as the settings are not long enough for particular songs with quiet spaces in them.  In the "Minimum Milliseconds of Silence Between Tracks," I entered in "900."  The next box you'll see is "Do Not Record or Split Track If Less Than."  Enter "500" in that box.  Leave the "Volume Level Cutoff" alone.

The next tab to view is the "Proxy" tab.  Leave this alone unless you use a proxy.  If you do, you'll have to make your own settings here.

After the "Proxy" tab is the "Output" tab.

Under "File Name Format," there is no need to enter in your own settings.  Leave it as Replay Music has it.  Check the "Record to MP3s" box.  Choose your bit rate, and make sure the CBR box is chosen.  The "Automatic Tagging" box should be checked, but this feature does not always work.  The recording volume should be in the middle.

We're now all finished with the settings in Replay Music.  Let's get on to leeching the Kyuss album we want so badly.

Don't worry about creating a folder for your music as Replay Music does this automatically.  You can rename that folder later if you wish.  Also, be prepared to play the entire album in Spotify when leeching.  Thus, leeching will take a bit of time.

In Replay Music, your next step is to click on the "Start Recording" button.

This gets you ready to record your first song in Spotify.  After choosing the "Start Recording" button, a box will pop up reading, "Start Recording Session."

In that box, you will want to enter the name of the band as well as the name of the album.  This helps Replay Music tag your songs.  Choose the "Always Tag With Artist Name Above" and the "Always Tag With Album Name Above" boxes and check them.  You may also enter the Genre if you wish to do so, but it is not necessary.  Do not worry about everything below the "Directory Format" area.  When you're finished with this box, click O.K.

You will now see Replay Music recording the first song.  Start the first song and permit the song to play completely through.  You must watch for the end of the song and click the "Stop Recording" button immediately after the song ends.  This action will prevent you from also recording any Spotify commercials that may pop up during your leeching session.

Now, check your folder where you have it saved and you will see your song there.  If you had a commercial come on after your first song, you may see a WAV file.  You may delete this file.

Next, do the same with track two on down the line to the end.  Be diligent with listening for commercials.  Normally, you will have one to three commercials per album, depending on how long the album is.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, you may have none at all.

At the end, anyone who chooses this venue has all of the songs they need.  Tagging all of the MP3 files that Replay Music did not tag will get files organized properly and ready to transfer to any MP3 player.

This is one suitable way someone would leech music files from Spotify.
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