{"slug": "soulseek", "name": "Soulseek", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.851, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-12-19", "latest": "2026-10-08", "why": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.slsknet.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Soulseek"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799477184, "item_id": 49967324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967324", "by": "arvid-lind", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I got back into it around a year ago, highly recommend. Very refreshing to experience parts of the old world that have survived like soulseek and torrents again.", "excerpt": "I got back into it around a year ago, highly recommend. Very refreshing to experience parts of the old world that have survived like soulseek and torrents again.", "context": "", "use_case": "building music collection", "switched_from": "", "story": "Picard 3.0"}, {"id": 782892736, "item_id": 48930796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930796", "by": "flipped", "date": "2026-07-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "excerpt": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "context": "", "use_case": "music file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The lost joy of music piracy"}, {"id": 741451264, "item_id": 46340704, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46340704", "by": "tclancy", "date": "2025-12-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love that SoulSeek still exists in some format.", "excerpt": "I love that SoulSeek still exists in some format. My path was Napster (made me get cable Internet and a cd burner) > AudioGalaxy (learned how to path things on routers so I could download music to home from work) > SoulSeek. Plus it had some useful chat and people who cared about sound quality and metadata.", "context": "", "use_case": "Music file sharing", "switched_from": "AudioGalaxy", "story": "Backing up Spotify"}, {"id": 741335024, "item_id": 46333439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46333439", "by": "eldaisfish", "date": "2025-12-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Soulseek is brilliant.", "excerpt": "I regularly use soulseek to download archival copies of music that I pay for. The artist makes their money, and I don\u2019t have to worry about my account access. Soulseek is brilliant.", "context": "", "use_case": "Downloading archival music copies", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["music file sharing", "finding japanese bands", "building music collection", "downloading archival music copies"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49959280", "title": "15-year search for a band that charted once and vanished", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49965047", "title": "Picard 3.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930454", "title": "The lost joy of music piracy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46338339", "title": "Backing up Spotify", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46324078", "title": "Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 800069473, "item_id": 50004342, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50004342", "by": "k__", "date": "2026-10-08", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Before that I used Soulseek for Japanese bands.", "excerpt": "Loved Spotify when it was good. I found so many bands east Europe, all written in Cyrillic, so I couldn't have searched for them easily. Before that I used Soulseek for Japanese bands.", "context": "", "use_case": "finding Japanese bands", "switched_from": "", "story": "15-year search for a band that charted once and vanished"}, {"id": 799477184, "item_id": 49967324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967324", "by": "arvid-lind", "date": "2026-10-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I got back into it around a year ago, highly recommend. Very refreshing to experience parts of the old world that have survived like soulseek and torrents again.", "excerpt": "I got back into it around a year ago, highly recommend. Very refreshing to experience parts of the old world that have survived like soulseek and torrents again.", "context": "", "use_case": "building music collection", "switched_from": "", "story": "Picard 3.0"}, {"id": 782892736, "item_id": 48930796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930796", "by": "flipped", "date": "2026-07-15", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "excerpt": "Did everyone forget about soulseek? It's still very much alive, been using it for years.", "context": "", "use_case": "music file sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The lost joy of music piracy"}, {"id": 741451264, "item_id": 46340704, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46340704", "by": "tclancy", "date": "2025-12-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love that SoulSeek still exists in some format.", "excerpt": "I love that SoulSeek still exists in some format. My path was Napster (made me get cable Internet and a cd burner) > AudioGalaxy (learned how to path things on routers so I could download music to home from work) > SoulSeek. Plus it had some useful chat and people who cared about sound quality and metadata.", "context": "", "use_case": "Music file sharing", "switched_from": "AudioGalaxy", "story": "Backing up Spotify"}, {"id": 741335024, "item_id": 46333439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46333439", "by": "eldaisfish", "date": "2025-12-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Soulseek is brilliant.", "excerpt": "I regularly use soulseek to download archival copies of music that I pay for. The artist makes their money, and I don\u2019t have to worry about my account access. Soulseek is brilliant.", "context": "", "use_case": "Downloading archival music copies", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks"}]}