Introduction
Audacity can record audio from your computer, and that means it can record Spotify audio, but it’s not well suited for it. It will pick up ads and it won’t automatically cut the Audio for you. You will have to cut the audio yourself and rename them all. Even worse: If a program outputs and error and BEEPS your computer, Audacity will record it too! That’s not really great if you want to record Spotify for many songs.
Enter Spy-Spotify, the best Spotiy recorder. It automatically records the songs for you and puts all the metadata too! That means all you need to do is start listening to Spotify and all the songs will be in mp3 in your folder, with correct name and labels. Awesome.
However, you must know something. Spotify recording is the digital equivalent of tape recorders. Back then if a song was playing on the radio you could put in a tape and hit record. You are essentially doing the same thing here, you are not downloading anything, simply pressing “record” to your computer’s speakers. This is a legal and ethical grey area. The artists you listen to get a few cents every time someone listens to their songs, so if you download the song, Spotify won’t pay the artists.
How to use Spotify Recorder Step-by-step
1. Download necessary programs
In order to record Spotify, you will first need the Spotify desktop application. Download it and install it. Create and account or login (Free accounts work). Next you will need the Spotify recorder application, Spytify. Click on that link and look for at the top where it says “Latest release”. Click on the .zip and download it.
2. Open Spotify recorder
Once it is downloaded, click on the .zip. It is usually at the bottom of your browser, like this:
Once you click it, it will open the archive file. Most computers can open this from the get-go. If you can’t open it, download and install winrar. You will see a bunch of files, double click on Spytify.exe
3. Configure the recorder
You will then see this screen pop up:
You don’t need to touch anything as the options are pretty much already what you need. In the options above it will be recorded to Mp3. If you are using Spotify free account then you are atuck at audio quality 160, but if you have premium you can get higher audio quality. 160kbps is more than enough for CD-like quality.
The only setting you want to pay attention to is the first one “Output path”, this is where the Spotify music will be recorded to. In my case it is the F:\ drive. Click on the green folder icon to the right to change it.
4. Click on “Start”
This is IMPORTANT, click on the green button that says “start” for the program to start “Listening in” as you will play Spotify.
You will see anotherscreen, that means the program is on stanby, ready to record music from Spotify when you play it.
4. Use the Spotify desktop app
Now go to the Spotify desktop app and play the songs you want to record. Everything will appear normal, but if you check the Spotify recorder, you will see this:
It’s recording the song that is playing. Important: Do NOT mess around with the controls. Do not stop or skip a song in the middle, or it will cut the recording. It’s like changing the radio station while you have a cassette recording it.
5. Check results
Go in the folder you selected and see if your song is downloaded there.
If it is that means everything works and you can move on to mass record. The best way to use the Spotify recorder is to have a playlist and simply let it do it’s thing. By the end of your playlist you will have all the songs you wanted downloaded in the folder you selected.
6. Stop recorder
Once you are satisfied with the recordings, remember to click on STOP to stop recording. If you don’t, every single song that plays on Spotify will be recorded on your computer and eat up your space.
7. (Optional) Install the recorder
Because the recorder is in a .zip file, we didn’t actually install it. If you want to install it, go back to the .zip you download it and click extract. I am using winrar, but most systems have .zip extractor built-in. Find the icon that says extract
Then simply select where you want to extract the files. Don’t forget to click on “NEW FOLDER” so that it extracts it to it’s own folder. Name it what you want, like “Spotify Recorder”. I recommend to extract it on the desktop for ease-of-access.
8. (Optional) Advanced recorder settings
Spytify offers some great options for more advanced users. One of the best advanced settings is “Group every artist inside their own folder. If you turn that on, each artist will have their songs inside their own folder, making it easy to organize instead of a pile of mp3s to sort.
Conclusion
You’ve just learned how to record Spotify. It’s easy and very convenient. But remember to always play the artists songs on Spotify nonetheless in order to support them, or get their album on Amazon.