Music Searching Guide

(Only for finding non-copyrighted works. Support the artits when you can.)

  • Finding it on web sites
    • You've probably already tried this. Let me give you some hints for being more efficient as well as some tricks you maybe weren't aware of.
    • First thing you should look at is the website of the artist. Hey, they may have promotional single tracks right there for download. It might be tricky to download, but i'll explain that in a bit. Likewise, search the major fansites or large sites dedicated to that kind of music.
    • Next is to look for it on some small random web site. Try searching for exactly what you want, in parenthesis, like for example "Enya - Amerantine - Less than a Pearl" or "Enya - 01 - Amerantine" if you are desperate enough, you can try all these combinations, try adding .mp3 to the end, try without spaces...
    • Many small sites that host mp3s are called rotation sites. Try adding these keywords to your search.
      Google search box with [ mp3 rotation download ].
  • Downloading from websites
    • Sometimes "right click and save as" just isnt an option. no matter what, if you can hear it, you can get it, one way or the other. I'll tackle some of the most common scenarios, but if nothing else works, you can always just record it.
    • If you right click in some empty space of a web page and select "view source" you can look for a link to where exactly the song is. Searching (ctrl-f) for the "EMBED" or "BGSOUND" tags will usually take you there, as that's the html code to add media extras to a web site. The location of the music is the part in the quotes of the 'src" tag. for example: 
       < embed src="http://www.theinterweb.com/yourmusic.mp3">
    • Simply inputting this address will either start a download, or else the web browser will open it, in which case just go to "file->save page as", or just use a download manager to download it. A nice program i just found (havn't tried yet) that will find all the links to media in a web page, even stuff hidden in ActiveX and javascript, is urlSnooper.
    • Last Resort. if none of those work but you can still hear the music, open up a sound recorder (like Audacity) and record it! make sure your recording source (control panel->Sounds and Audio Devices->Device Volume-Advanced->Options->Properties->Recording->OK) is set to something like "internal mixer" or "what you hear". When you've recorded the whole thing, just save it as an mp3 and you're good to go! (you can use other recorders and get the lame mp3 codecs here)
  • Downloading Streaming Media
    • What if the file is streaming? In which case, tring to just download it will give you an error or some small file that is effectivly nothing more than a link. Streaming internet radio and video fall into this same catagory, though they just stream a constant string of random things instead of the single song you want. So, how do you download it? Well, the best advice i can give is to find a good program for recording the kind of streaming file it is.
    • StreamRipper works with winamp to record Shoutcast and Icecast mp3, aac, ogg, and nullsoft streaming video.
    • StreamJacker same as above, but i seem to remember downloading other things with it too.
    • ASFRecorder for recording streaming windows media
    • WMRecorder shareware for recording windows and real media
    • Try looking for one yourself. New stuff comes out every day
  • Extracting from a Video
    • So the song you want is in a video, eh? maybe you were able to find the songs music video. maybe you found the song in an Anime Music Video. Maybe its from some random video of people doing awsome stuff put to awsome music.
    • Getting it from an avi is pretty easy. open it up in virtualdub and click "Save WAV...", open in Audacity, edit it and save as an mp3.
    • Ok, so i don't know or want to get into the details for all the other formats, but they are pretty much the same. Find a program to "demux" (extract) the audio stream, possibly edit it, and save as mp3.
    • If you can't find a good demuxer, there is always the option of recording it like i described in the downloading from websites section.
  • Searching web spaces
    • here is a neat trick i learned somewhere. use google to search directly for files that people have on their web hosts, thus avoiding looking for links and getting overwhelmed with useless text references. Just add your song name to this advanced search.
      Google search box with [ -inurl(html|htm|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” + description + size +].
  • FTPs
    • FTP Search Engines
    • go through this list of FTP search engines. Maybe someone has your song available on an annonymous access FTP.
    • Maybe some of your friends have FTPs where they share all kinds of things. Ask around. hint. hint.
  • Server Searching Programs
    • This covers a range of sketchy programs that claim to search secret mp3 hosts. Download and try at your own risk. I was never too thrilled with them, but then i have odd tastes in music.
    • Advanced MP3 Search
    • Free mp3 Finder
    • 01-Mp3search
  • IRC
    • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a way to communicate with many people in large chatroom environments. Many anime fan sub groups communicate through IRC as well as countless other groups. its a great tool for communication, and can completely consume some people. If you want to learn about IRC and how to use it, check out this site. Just like you need a program to browse the www, you need a program to brouse the irc. I recommend mIRC.
    • There is a way to transfer files between users on IRC, and many people have bots that have the single purpose of hosting files for other users to download. Making a large network of fiends on IRC is by far the easiest way to find and get whatever files you are looking for. Ask around and get a priority download from someone someone else knows.
    • The other option is to use a website to search these bots for the file you want. They will give you the network, the group, the user, and the file number you want to request. Just attach to the network, join the channel (/j #anime), and request the file (/msg BOTNAME xdcc send #01). Oh, and make sure in the options of mIRC that you have the DCC set to auto accept and to turn off Ignore.
    • IRCspy
    • Packet News
    • XDCCspy
    • iso hunt
  • usenet
    • I don't know how to use this. From what i hear, its somewhat like IRC, but within your ISP, and more like a bullitin board than a chat room. My school shut down their usenet service several years ago, so i've never been able to play around with it. Here is a good program that you can attempt to use to get access to the boards, and to the rummered stash of random uploaded files. Let me know if you get it working.
    • There are also some sites out there where you pay a monthly fee for access to a usenet network with tons of files available for download. Doesn't sound too legal to me. I wonder how they stay up and working? Anyway, here are a few, though i've never tried them.
    • usenet
    • UseNeXT
    • GUBA
  • BitTorrent
    • This method is very popular, and heavily moniterd by your ISP and the IRAA. But there is plenty of stuff out there that isn't copy right protected.
    • Bittorrent works by having the same people downloading a file upload it at the same time. This allows a large file to be distributed without putting the original host under killer bandwidth usage. A Seed is anyone who has completed the download, but leaves the bittorrent open so that others can finish their downloads and spread the file even further. You need a program to handle the file sharring, like the official version, bittornado. or µTorrent. Then you need to find a .torrent file for what you want. Here are some good torrent trackers:
    • AnimeSuki - Anime Fansub Distribution listing
    • ScaryWater - Also for Anime Fansubs
    • BitTorrent
    • ISO Hunt
    • TorrentSpy
    • Torrentz
  • P2P
    • Everyone knows about kazaa, napster, gnucleus, emule and the like. I'm too paranoid to use them as they are prime suspects for getting caught downloading something you shouldn't. Plus, they usually use a lot of system resources, come bundled with all kinds of nasty spyware, and run the risk of virus attacks. just avoid them, in my oppinion.
  • myTunes Share
    • I'm a tried and true Winamp fan, but apple certainly had a killer idea when they added network sharring to itunes. Its the reason its the no.1 media player on college campuses. Of course, they have since lamed it down to only allowing a few different users to connect each day. The trick is to find version 4.7.1 or earlier and use that.
    • There are a couple of differnt programs that allow you to download instead of just listen to shared songs. The two big ones are:
    • myTunes for windows
    • ourTunes in java
  • Winamp Wombat Share
    • Winamp has adapted to behave similar to itunes music sharring with the help of a couple different pluggins. They are:
    • Wombat Share
    • Hydra ML

Originally published around 2005