What's the best mp3 downloader?

September 2, 2004 9:06 AM

I'm sure it's been asked before, but I can't find it. What's the best free mp3 downloader out there now? Kazaa is kaput with ads now, in my opinion.
posted by agregoli to computers & internet (16 answers total)

I use limewire. I'm not sure how it compares with other downloaders though.
posted by Juicylicious at 9:51 AM on September 2, 2004

Well, if you don't really care what you're downloading, you can always google for index of mp3 to pull up all the results of directory listings that people are stashing the files in.

Outside of that, Limewire seems to be a reasonably consistent choice.
posted by Remy at 9:53 AM on September 2, 2004

I use KazaaLite. And edonkey2000.
posted by goethean at 9:58 AM on September 2, 2004

And Soulseek.
posted by kenko at 10:07 AM on September 2, 2004

I'm content with Shareaza. Haven't done a lot of comparison between different ones, but did enough research to be reasonably sure Shareaza doesn't have spyware/malware, which was my major concern.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:08 AM on September 2, 2004

I second Soulseek. I can get all kinds of random stuff and its interface is approximately infinitely better than Kazaa. DL time is much faster as well.
posted by sciurus at 10:18 AM on September 2, 2004

soulseek.

or learn about premium newservers. they cost money, but they're worth it -- especially when you decide your free time is worth something and you don't want to spend hours running searches.
posted by fishfucker at 10:22 AM on September 2, 2004

I use mp3 blogs.
posted by mecran01 at 11:04 AM on September 2, 2004

DirectConnect and BitTorrent. Slight learning curve, but the payoff is worth it.
posted by signal at 11:15 AM on September 2, 2004

WinMX is still alive (I think).
posted by internal at 11:30 AM on September 2, 2004

MP3 blogs are great, and I concur about Soulseek, it's user-friendly and a great source for the obscure to the top 40.
posted by kickerofelves at 11:57 AM on September 2, 2004

mp3 blogs are WONDERFUL. mark's suggestions on Music for Robot's usually are posted for the win.

soulseek, otherwise.
posted by lotsofno at 12:01 PM on September 2, 2004

You should be upset about the scumware/malware in kazaa, more than anything else.

If you have a high speed connection, learn how to use newsgroups.
posted by filmgeek at 12:44 PM on September 2, 2004

I am upset about it. Did I give any indication otherwise?

Newsgroups don't really interest me. I'll check out the mp3 blog thing, but I really just want to be able to type in an artist and get some offerings.
posted by agregoli at 1:32 PM on September 2, 2004

If you're after albums or entire discographies, Overnet/eDonkey is probably the easiest, although googling around for torrents is the next best thing. In fact, for full discographies, I've found nothing better than Overnet.

ON/eDonkey does have some number of fake files and crapware on offer, but such problems seem to be more common in the warezey corners than with music.

I agree that Kazaa/OpenFT is crap. There is a lot of low-bitrate chaff on there, obviously ripped and encoded by idiots or little kids.
posted by majick at 2:51 PM on September 2, 2004

The emule client is pretty good. Free, no spyware. It includes all edonkey clients and Shareaza clients.
posted by skallas at 6:35 PM on September 2, 2004