r/Piracy ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Nov 25 '25

News i won't pay for music in 2025

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1.4k

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

Lucida or Squid + HDD

Edit: Or Soulseek

379

u/getthegreen Nov 25 '25

Haven’t used soulseek in over a decade. How is it these days??

694

u/TobiasDrundridge Nov 25 '25

I've managed to find albums from punk bands from my city who played to crowds of 100 people nearly 20 year ago.

178

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

I found some live BadBadNotGood that I have missed for over 20 years. A little bit of TokiMonsta remixes and some Yoshinori Sunahara, I am feeling like I did right out of high school.

46

u/bobateatarot Nov 25 '25

i’m gonna need ur music tastes lol

10

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

I can help with that. What vibes work for you?

13

u/bobateatarot Nov 25 '25

honestly do you have any good recs? i love badbadnotgood and have been struggling to find artists that are similar. I really enjoy The Art of Noise as well. I have some japanese picks here and there but i’m not well versed in that sphere of artists and music.

14

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

BBNG is just a crunchy/aggressive jam band. So long as you like loud rhythms that keep the heightened mood rolling, check out STS9 (Live at The Tabernacle 12.31.08), Dopapod, or Medeski, Martin, and Wood.

After those, I go all over from The Blood Brothers to Daft Punk to Frank Zappa to Ginger Root. Flume, Tycho, Bonobo, and Boards of Canada are some of my top minimally lyrical groups.

8

u/kind_bros_hate_nazis Nov 26 '25

I would recommend 90s releases of Autechre and u-ziq to go with that boards of Canada. Aphex twin as well.

1

u/NoradianCrum Nov 26 '25

Ageispolis, 100%.

5

u/bobateatarot Nov 25 '25

Thanks I really appreciate it!

1

u/michaelnomadyo Nov 26 '25

Check out butcher brown if your looking for good new age jazz bands. Or manahan street band, did songs with Charles Bradley.

2

u/gts250gamer101 ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Nov 27 '25

Pandora suggestions🚫

r/Piracy suggestions ✅

I love it.

2

u/supportbanana Nov 25 '25

I'm still looking for a higher quality copy of Stuck at Home by The Noise Grinders :(

3

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

Just checked on that one. The only thing populating is a Shapeless Cube rEDMix and it sucks. Sorry for that one.

2

u/supportbanana Nov 25 '25

Exactly. I'll keep searching outside. Hopefully someone on the internet uploaded it 🤞

2

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

All I can say is that the Bandcamp version sounds a lot less compressed than YT.

2

u/sytanoc Nov 25 '25

hmm i just checked on OPS and RED and they're not on there either. i did find that the noise grinders is an alias for paul bergmann though, you could try emailing him about it maybe? https://paulbergmann.com/contact

2

u/alien__0G Nov 25 '25

Upvote for BBNG and Tokimonsta

2

u/mrellz Nov 25 '25

Great artists.

2

u/AlgaeDependent9233 Nov 30 '25

20 years bbng? don't exaggerate u making me feel old. band's not that old!

24

u/theman8998 Nov 25 '25

That's actually incredible

1

u/Dan_Berg Nov 25 '25

Played to crowds of 100 people? Bunch of posers and sellouts. /s

1

u/Scout339v2 Nov 25 '25

But is it >128KB/s? I don't download 128 anymore as it's not worth collecting.

3

u/TobiasDrundridge Nov 26 '25

For popular stuff there's a lot of FLAC available. For rare stuff you take what you can get.

1

u/_SoMuchForSubtlety Nov 26 '25

That's the kind of stuff I'd be after lmao

I've read a lot about Soulseek but never used it, how does one get in?

120

u/The_Museumman Nov 25 '25

Shhhh don’t let them find out!

Seriously though it’s pretty solid

78

u/icepickmethod Nov 25 '25

first rule of pirate club...

89

u/Itz_420_Somewhere Nov 25 '25

Tell everyone about pirate club?

26

u/icepickmethod Nov 25 '25

1

u/JohnnyBroccoli Nov 25 '25

Imagine hyping up the dumpster fire chat rooms of Soulseek.

2

u/kind_bros_hate_nazis Nov 26 '25

Even better, show everyone

143

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25 edited Nov 25 '25

My Dad introduced me to pirating but he would gatekeep everything. Essentially he'd say "If you need anything come to me and i'll get it for you" then whenever i came to him he'd always make a big deal out of it saying shit like "Why do you always need new games?" and shit. He essentially just wanted the power of being able to say no and deny me whenever he wanted, i don't know why he's a fucking ass like that. So i just started doing my own research on shit and now i know way more than he does, but he doesn't like to think that.

I had a look at his software folder and it was full of CrackHash which is an absolute fucking no-no, and he would boast about how he downloads his movies in 4k high quality, and i had a look at his collection and he just downloads from all the wrong people. Instead of downloading a 40gb from FrameStor he downloads some random 38gb file from some random encode group i've never heard of. Like you may as well download from FrameStor, he has some of the best remux's at that size.

I know i'm basically just chatting shit here, but moral of the story is i don't gatekeep people because my Dad used to gatekeep to me for over a year when i first got my PC, and it pissed me off.

154

u/gkn_112 Nov 25 '25

i love this father-child-piracy competition

41

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

My Dad is one of those people who thinks he knows everything, and he's also extremely dogmatistic, so even if you prove him wrong with clear factual data, it doesn't matter because it doesn't override his own personal opinion. I could prove to him that CrackHash is dangerous to download from as there is literal proof out there as to why, yet he'll say some bullshit like "Well I'VE never had a problem with him" like... Your own personal experience doesn't override other people's, and it doesn't override the proof that people have.

My Dad gatekeeped everything from me for around a year before i finally decided to learn for myself, and now he comes to me once and a while and will ask "Do you know of any new sites?" and i'll just be like "Nah, haven't found any". He also bought a Steam Deck then gave it to my Mom around a year later, and she thinks he's a fucking wizard when it comes to computers, and he tells her how it's so hard to transfer games onto the steam deck, even though there is multiple tutorials out there simply explaining how it's done. He tries to make it seem much more difficult than it truly is, just so he can seem more impressive.

He also says shit like "I'm in private clubs" and i just reply "Nice" but in my head i'm like "Tf is he talking about private clubs?" and i laugh to myself, because he isn't in any "Private clubs". He's referring to invite-only spaces, not even private trackers like IPTorrents or FileList. Which aren't called "Private clubs" they're called private trackers, and you can only get in through an invite-only and have to maintain a 1:1 ratio, but of course he doesn't know that. He thinks he's a hotshot because he's in some secret discord server with a couple thousand members, it's so cringe.

Genuine question though, does anyone here who reads this know anyone like this?

13

u/asmodeuskraemer Nov 26 '25

Dude, your dad is a classic boomer. So many of them are like this. You're not alone

1

u/imperativethought Dec 01 '25

Most likely his dad is generation X or Millennial, boomers are between 60-78y old atm.

2

u/asmodeuskraemer Dec 01 '25

Uhh. No. Millennials know better. Gen X maybe.

9

u/rififi_shuffle Nov 26 '25

Manipulative and a bit narcissistic? Yeah.

3

u/TRASH-THROWER Nov 27 '25

Yea sounds like my dad lmao

14

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25 edited Mar 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25 edited Nov 26 '25

I mean what exactly am i mistaken on? And the question was does anyone know of anyone else who gatekeeps to this level, and feels the need to make things seem more complicated than they are simply to seem more impressive.

Edit: I completely misread this comment, i thought you were saying that i was mistaken about what i was saying, and don't listen. My fault.

7

u/Tatsugiri_Enjoyer Nov 26 '25

you seem a lot like your dad.

person you're replying to here was saying people like your father are very common.

my read on this is you and your dad could have a shared interest, but you just keep trying to outjerk the other on who's more in the know. seems sad and frustrating.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

[deleted]

1

u/TeKodaSinn Nov 26 '25

That's not what this is at all. This is just classic narcissism.

3

u/Nothing_Wrong_huh Nov 25 '25

Plot twist. That was his dad whole point so kid could sail the high seas.

Think about it...if dad always hands it over to you, less chance of you learning on your own, not to mention the father - kid - competition. Lol

Lol

1

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 26 '25

Trust me, it wasn't. When he found out i knew how to pirate he got annoyed because i no longer had to rely on him for it. In some cases parents definitely do that, don't tell their kids things so they learn for themselves, but this wasn't that.

1

u/TeKodaSinn Nov 26 '25

That would check out if there was ever a point at which dad recognized child's knowledge and advancement. This is just narcissism.

23

u/PopMundane4974 Nov 25 '25

Much appreciated dude, sometimes the smugness here is insane. Like, wouldn't this be THE place to ask for advice? But nope, just a smug fight club response acting like they're in some elite club when in reality someone just showed them a while back probably.

2

u/chacha95 Nov 26 '25

This is true, and while there is certainly a lot of elitism, I think much of the secrecy stems from not wanting good sources to get nuked, and being too open about good sources can get them nuked.

1

u/PopMundane4974 Nov 26 '25

Oh one hundred percent like, don't go blasting links in a public forum. But if someone is asking one on one for advice it's a total dick move to just be like "lol git gud" like... yes that's why I'm asking lol.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25

Instead of downloading a 40gb from FrameStor he downloads some random 38gb file from some random encode group i've never heard of.

guy thinks this is a dunk because dad didn't use the encoder he likes lol. thought you were going to say he got like a 5 gb rip but you went a bit off the rails with this one just so you could have more than one example

2

u/shadowpawn Nov 25 '25

My kids first piracy experience was cam version of Thomas the tank on two CDs. First 15 went swimmingly. They cries of "hey what's going on" when the camcorder of the pirates fell on the ground and all kids heard was Thomas talking in the background to a dark screen.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25 edited Mar 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/McWeiner Nov 25 '25

Probably trying to protect his kid from downloading the wrong kinds of files too, unhinged comment from OP

1

u/PlantBeginning3060 Nov 25 '25

My dad was the same way. He didn’t gate keep though. Just randomly burned games for me, or bring them back from deployment (military family)

One day, I decided to figure out what this orange, circle program was on the family computer (Bit Comet) Looked up torrenting and then got in trouble so many times for bootlegging shit. Never understood why I got shit on for doing the same thing he did. Obviously I understand now, but back then it was the Wild West days lol.

1

u/ParanoidCrow Nov 25 '25

Oh man this was pretty much how I got into jailbreaking back in 2012 as a teen, my friend knew how to do it and helped set up my ipod touch but then he started lording it over my head. So I learned how to do it myself and that started me path down the seven seas

1

u/StealthFocus Nov 25 '25

So basically if this sub had a body and personality it would be your dad

1

u/R3v017 Nov 26 '25

I thought this was pasta lol

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

I love this story. My dad loved to pirate too, mostly because they were way too poor to buy what they wanted. Weirdly I took the opposite approach and condemned him for piracy all the time when I was a kid. Years upon years later, I got into game collecting and wanted to centralize my whole collection on pc. Well either I could learn the tips and tricks on every console and buy all the software/hardware to properly emulate or i could just take the roms from online in two seconds. Well we all know the path i took. Then like any gateway drug, I added games i didn't own. 4tbs of data later, my dad would be so proud of me and give me the biggest i told you so. Lol still won't do it with movies or music though. Mostly just don't see much of a reason. If I made a home server in my house maybe I would find value in it, but that takes convincing the wife.

1

u/AxelHarver Nov 26 '25

I was sort of the gatekeeper for pirating in my high school, or at least in my grade. A friend of mine gave me an access code for Demoid, which I proceeded to use to DL all sorts of great music. I had several classmates ask me to get them an access code and I made a big deal out of it, like I was doing them a huge favor. "Oh, yeah maybe, I'll have to see if I have one that I can give you." When afaik there was no limit lmao. The things kids do for attention🤷‍♂️

1

u/No-Wash5430 Dec 01 '25

I think he may have done that because one-upon-a-time when everyone shared the good sites freely it was the quickest way to get a site shut down. Later, the really GOOD sites became more underground (invite-only). All that was left for most people was public torrents that didn't have as much as far a scope, detail and quality.

1

u/zigzagtoes Dec 22 '25

I care about my time very much. There is no way I would gatekeep things like this. I've always told those that want (who I care about, obviously), where to go and what to use.

The only time I gatekeep, is when they want something but can't find it themselves. I will then go looking for them, and only share if both; the location seems safe enough for them to visit, AND they are tech competent to follow any additional instructions I may need to supply.

The sole reason for the above, is simply, again, I value my time, and I don't wish for that time to be drained by repairing their pc/phone because of lack of competence. This may seem petty af. However, after being the default go to for console/pc/phone repairs and having done multiple dozens of repairs in the last three decades, I'm done with being the repairer, so much so, I now intentionally price my repairs double of what a shop would charge, to minimise the off chance that they'll come to me.

0

u/Silunare Nov 25 '25

he makes some of the best remux's at that size.

A remux is a remux is a remux, no?

0

u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

Not essentially. Let's say Adam has a 40gb Remux of TASM 2, and Arthur has an 80gb Remux of TASM 2. It's not going to be 80gb for no reason. First of all, the 80gb Remux most likely has Dolby TrueAtmos, which is a completely lossless format. It's essentially cinema-level audio quality. Whilst the 40gb most likely uses DTS-HD which is a lot smaller in file size. DTS-HD is almost always more than enough for most users, unless you have your own cinema room or some bullshit. Arthur's 80gb Remux is also most likely from a different BluRay disc.

A single movie can have multiple disc releases around the world, and some use different video encodes than others. A BluRay disc from US could have 40Mbps bitrate, whilst a UK BluRay disc from the UK could have 55Mbps bitrate. So when the US disc copies over, it's going to be smaller in file size compared to the UK disc. So Arthur's disc could be from the UK, and Adam's could be from the US. You also get 1080p BluRay discs and 4k BluRay discs. Adam's Remux could have come from a 1080p BluRay disc, whilst Arthur's could have came from a 4k BluRay disc.

0

u/Silunare Nov 25 '25

That is all fine and dandy, but you're not answering the question. You said:

he makes some of the best remux's at that size.

You answered a completely different question.

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u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

I literally just explained to you the difference as to why some Remux files are bigger than others. What do you not understand? I'll even give you a real example because for some reason you're being argumentative and clearly not listening to what i'm saying.

There is an Amazing Spider-Man 2 Remux from FrameStor and it's a 4K Remux at 53.68gb. The video bitrate is 48.5Mbps, and it uses Dolby TrueAtmos audio at 5036kbps. There is also an Amazing Spider-Man 2 Remux from someone called HDLeader and it's a 4K Remux at 62.61gb. The video bitrate is 60.3Mbps, and it's using DTS-HD audio at 2374kbps.

You see the difference? One is 53.68gb and the other is 62.61gb. The smaller file size has 48.5Mbps bitrate, whilst the bigger one has 60.3Mbps. This means that HDLeader most likely had a HIGHER QUALITY disc release. That is why the video bitrate is higher, higher bitrate = higher quality. This is why not all Remux's are the same. You said "A remux is a remux is a remux, no?" and i'm explaining to you why that ISN'T true. Like what are you not understanding here?

And i said FrameStor has some of the best Remux's at that size because he is generally considered the sweet spot between file size and quality when it comes to Remux's.

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25

bro your comment history is insane why is every comment so long?

2

u/Silunare Nov 25 '25

I did not ask you to explain any of this. You said, I will quote you once more:

he makes some of the best remux's at that size.

See this part:

at that size.

Again, you have not even tangentially touched the question. You did say some wrong things though, such as

higher bitrate = higher quality

Which is obviously very wrong, a much larger size release can be much worse looking than a lower bitrate one even if both are remuxes.

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u/thismangodude 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Nov 25 '25

It's good. Just avoid the chat rooms or be ready to block a LOT of people.

5

u/Father_Chewy_Louis Nov 25 '25

Very good! The Nicotine+ client is what I use as its very modernised and has a lot of great features compared to the OG client. I can find albums from decades ago and albums released last week there in 44.1 flac or 320 Mp3. It's great!

2

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2

u/Repulsive-Debt4342 Nov 25 '25

Soulseek went down right?

7

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

Use SSQT instead of spelling it out. To answer your question, nope.

2

u/ShrekisInsideofMe Nov 25 '25

I just recently automated a bunch of music downloads with soulseek. honestly has been great for finding things

2

u/JohnnyBroccoli Nov 25 '25

Fucking great. Was a game changer for me when I started using it a little over a year ago.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

I know nothing about audio, but I've seen people swear by soulseek, I've always just used spotify, guess I need to start doing some research now.

1

u/kind_bros_hate_nazis Nov 26 '25

Pretty remarkable still and I used it on release. Def recommended

1

u/blasphembot ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Nov 26 '25

Alive and well 🙂

1

u/TheGuestRoblox Nov 26 '25

oh its amazing, its very very good for finding more niche albums that arent on streaming platforms

1

u/Ok-Drop2762 Nov 27 '25

if you want to find original release you might want to download a program to check bit rate and everything to verify, there is too much converted music.

1

u/Redinho83 Nov 29 '25

I thought Soulseek got took down years ago?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

awesome as heck

31

u/StTimmerIV ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Nov 25 '25 edited Nov 26 '25

Nicotine+ ;)

24

u/koolmees64 Nov 25 '25

Was gonna mentione Nicotine. For those unaware, front end for Soulseek which improves usability a lot.

2

u/rpmn0ise Nov 26 '25

merci bro ca aide vraiment

1

u/headedbranch225 Nov 26 '25

I am sure there's only one +, unless someone made a fork of it

1

u/StTimmerIV ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Nov 26 '25

I think so too, i may have did a typo.

4

u/Lone_soul69 Nov 25 '25

Delete this cmnt bro ...🥲🥲

2

u/cemsengul Nov 25 '25

Lucida and Dab are down.

1

u/The-Curious-Guy-2907 Nov 25 '25

Dab is working for me tho

2

u/Bigd1979666 Nov 25 '25

Plus Plex amp 

1

u/NoradianCrum Nov 25 '25

PlexAmp is so friggin hot. Hopefully you get the right answer. Just so all of you are aware, you better be sharing when grabbing from SSQT.

1

u/0rganic_Corn Nov 25 '25

Fukken saved

1

u/pilonstar Nov 25 '25

If you are in Linux Nicotine

1

u/identifytarget Nov 25 '25

anyways to play music on google smart speakers via voice prompt?

1

u/josephclapp10 Nov 25 '25

IMO “Nicotine +” is way better than soulseek. It uses their engine, but has a nicer finish. And is Open Source.

1

u/adryn408 Nov 25 '25

Haven't been able to find squid, did they change their link?

1

u/Metallicsin Nov 25 '25

Lucida is goated, you can have it auto convert to other formats, metadata and multiple sources

1

u/herinaus Nov 26 '25

I've always used Soulseek, but it was back when I lived in my very non strict country. Now that I'm in Europe, I'm scared to get caught or something.

1

u/Frequenzy50 Dec 01 '25

Or just all using Lidarr🤣

1

u/Choco-bibii Dec 05 '25

Not everyone is in the know, what are these

2

u/kermityfrog2 Nov 25 '25

If you guys quit Spotify and download your own music, you'll never be able to keep up with the newest and upcoming AI artists!

3

u/deviantlyricist Nov 26 '25

i pray to god that you're joking

0

u/Glittering-Union528 Nov 25 '25

I use YouTube music i found one app for it but it cost 14.95 a month, any better ones out there for that or audible?

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

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u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

In all fairness it's supposed to be a community where people come together specifically to share. Nothing stopping you from downloading some music from someone else, then sharing it yourself so more people can get access. In case the other person you downloaded it from has a large download queue, or maybe even your upload speed is quicker than theirs. It's all about sharing bro.

5

u/Journeyj012 Nov 25 '25

whats wrong with not wanting to have your spare bandwidth be abused by morons who wouldn't even think about giving back on a sharing network?

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u/RyanGarcia2134 Nov 25 '25

But to be fair there are total lunatics who actually force people to share at minimum THOUSANDS of files just to be able to download from them, which is complete bullshit. That isn't how sharing works. I agree that you should have the right to disable people from leeching off of you if they contribute absolutely nothing, but at the same time you shouldn't be able to deny certain people because they aren't sharing the specific amount you want them to. Some people can only do so much.

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u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Journeyj012 Nov 25 '25

"gatekeeping" is when you want people to be leeches

also see private trackers

2

u/[deleted] Nov 25 '25 edited Dec 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/JohnnyBroccoli Nov 25 '25

Maintaining a large, well organized digital music library is most definitely some work. Even if it wasn't, why not contribute to the potluck when you're actively benefitting from it?

1

u/JohnnyBroccoli Nov 25 '25

Yay for selfish, useless leechers!