SoundCloud is all about the community—it’s where artists share recordings of songs, remixes, edits, and curated lists that aren’t available on a streaming platform like Spotify or Apple Music. It’s a great place to discover niche, indie, and up-and-coming music, and unlike the giants, SoundCloud has always offered a way to download music for free. That is, if the artist opts for it; otherwise, you’ll need to pay for the $US10/month SoundCloud Go+ plan that enables ad-free and offline listening.
How to download songs directly from SoundCloud
If a song has been made available for download by the artists, open the song page on the web, and make sure you’re logged in to your SoundCloud account. Go to the Menu button below the waveform, and choose the Download File option.
If this option is missing, it means that the artists has not provided the song for free download. If you want to download songs for offline use on your iPhone or Android smartphone, you’ll need a SoundCloud Go+ membership for $US10/month.
After signing up, open the SoundCloud app, and tap the Download button that shows up below the album or song. You can also download your entire Likes and your playlist library by going to Settings > Downloads > Download Automatically. Here, you can also define the download quality, and you can choose to download new music only over wifi.
How to download SoundCloud songs with a third-party tool
For songs that don’t have download buttons on SoundCloud, there’s another way. You can use an online downloader tool that will extract the audio file from the SoundCloud website and deliver it to you in the form of an MP3 file.
Remember that piracy is illegal: You should only to use this method to download the songs that are available for free, and the best way to support your favorite artists is to buy their music (or at least stream it). But you can download freely offered music with a specialized tool like KickAud, or you can use a free and open-source tool like Cobalt. Cobalt is free of ads, malware, and tracking, and is incredibly customizable.
In Cobalt, all you have to do is to paste the SoundCloud URL, click Enter.
Alternatively, you can use KickAud. Just paste in the URL, then click Convert. This will work for both songs and playlists.
On the next page, choose Download the song. The website will first save the song to its servers, and then your download will start.
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