Music downloading guide for beginners

This guide presents several ways how to download high quality music. The first choice method should always be downloading from streaming sites like Qobuz and Deezer because it gives the highest possible quality and is super fast. If you can't find there your music then you can try other methods.

1. Downloading directly from streaming sites.

1.1 Qobuz
Qobuz offers MP3 and FLAC files, some albums are also available as hi-res FLAC with sample rates higher than standard 44,1 kHz.
Use QobuzDownloaderX-MOD to download: https://github.com/DJDoubleD/QobuzDownloaderX-MOD
For those not familiar with github: go to Releases and then under Assets you will find link to program as zip file (for example QBDLX-MOD_1.2.5.0.zip).
Run the software and click grey text "Can't login? Click here" - this will switch to login via token. Check Firehawk guide for the list of tokens: https://rentry.org/firehawk52#tokens (you need both ID and Token to login). After login do basic configuration and you are set. You can search for albums and tracks directly in the software. More info here: https://github.com/DJDoubleD/QobuzDownloaderX-MOD/wiki
It's also possible to browse Qobuz catalogue without the account using this link: https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/shop

1.2 Deezer
Deezer offers MP3 and FLAC files.
Use Deemix to download: Setup version or Portable version
You need ARL to login, you can find them here https://rentry.org/firehawk52#deezer-arls Run the software and click OPEN SETTINGS, then "Use ARL instead" - paste the ARL and click Force Update ARL. Go through Settings to configure everything and you are set.
Keep in mind some tracks are only available as MP3, you will get error when trying to download them with FLAC set in download settings.

1.3 ~~Slav Art~~
Update, February 2024: it no longer works
Slavart is a Discord server with bot which can download tracks/albums from various streaming sites.
Currently supported sites: Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal, Soundcloud, Spotify. How to join? First join their Telegram channel https://t.me/+9znaxmYJB5lkNzA8 and find link to Discord. Discord server gets deleted from time to time, in that case check Telegram channel for updates.
Tutorial (little outdated) on how to use the bot: https://rentry.org/slavart
Useful userscripts: https://rentry.org/slavartuserscripts

1.4 Websites

https://doubledouble.top/ - downloads tracks/albums from many streaming sites. The site is currently unstable, if you have errors try again later.
https://slavart.gamesdrive.net/tracks - downloads tracks from Qobuz
https://free-mp3-download.net/ - downloads tracks from Deezer

1.5 Telegram bots
For details check Firehawk guide https://rentry.org/firehawk52#telegram-bots

1.6 How to quickly find links to tracks/albums on streaming sites
Use following sites to search all streamings at once:

1.7 Known problems with streamings

Region locking - some albums are region locked, meaning they can't be downloaded in some countries / regions of the world. The solution for that is to use token/ARL from other country. You can check if album is locked here: https://atisket.pulsewidth.org.uk/
Buy only tracks - there are tracks on Qobuz which have "buy only" status, such tracks can't be downloaded

2. Torrents

https://rutracker.org - this is Russian tracker but language is not a problem, you can translate it in real time using:

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/traduzir-paginas-web/
Chrome: just right click and choose Translate

You have to register to download torrents here, tracker is ratioless meaning you don't have to care about your upload/download ratio. It has huge amount of all kinds of music including rare stuff.
If the site doesn't load for you most likely it's blocked by your ISP or DNS server, in such case VPN is needed to bypass that.

3. Soulseek

Soulseek is a P2P network allowing direct downloading from other users. Mostly MP3 and FLAC are available, you can find really rare stuff there which is not available anywhere else. Recommended client is Nicotine+ https://nicotine-plus.org/
Important things:

You SHOULD share your music. Not sharing my result by other users banning you.
Some users lock their shares (file appears as Private), such files can't be downloaded. Those idiots want something in return in order to share it.
Quality of music there might vary, you can expect to get "fake" / transcoded files. For example 128kbps MP3 transcoded to 320kbps MP3 or FLAC, you can learn how to check for transcodes in paragraph 5.

4. DDL sites

Those sites upload music to common file hostings like rapidgator. If you want to download such files with high speed you need to buy subscriptions for the hosts, the best solution is to buy debrid service which allows to download from multiple hosts, example: https://alldebrid.com/
Recommended DDL sites:

5. Checking quality of music files

Transcoded lossy audio files are a big no-no. In most cases you should be able to detect transcodes by checking frequency spectrum as described here. To generate spectrum of any audio file use Spek https://www.spek.cc/p/download

6. Other guides

Firehawk52 guide: https://rentry.org/firehawk52 - big thanks to Firehawk52 and all contributors.