Been torrenting for quite a while, and I found this app called Soulseek. How exactly do I use it?

im new to soulseek pls dont downvote thanks:)

I was recommended this app/program by everyone for music so I decided to go the websites but it's very confusing does anyone know how to use it or is there a guide.

Hi, I'm trying to use Soulseek to find some music I can't find anywhere else and I do believe I am stuck.

1. I downloaded the app from the .org website (.net is not secure? Possibly a scam?) and it doesn't let me create and account, just sign in. Any combo seems to work?

2. When I exist the app (by the X button) I can't reopen the app unless I terminated it on task manager, and after that it's like I never had an account or opened the app

3. How do rooms work? there's a chat and board page but I have no clue how I'm supposed to interract with them or what used they have

4. Can I use the app along with a VPN and antivirus? For reference I'm using Surfshark and Malewarebytes

5. I figured to find music I need to use the search page, is there any rules I need to follow to be a good user? I'm already sharing my music folder for instance

6. Do I need to tweak some setting like the port? I have no clue how this works to be honest and don't know if it will work since I'm on school internet

Thank you all in advance!

I’m the kind of guy who loves music and is always looking for obscure vintage tracks. 80s, 90s, 70s, whatever. How do you all go about finding brand-new songs? Do you use another method entirely and look for it on Soulseek afterward, or do you just talk to online friends on the service?

Good afternoon, after the world is all becoming subscription-based I'm hating it and I've returned to piracy :) Specifically music, I want to avoid any music service because they all come with subscriptions, and I read the wiki and the subreddit, I saw you use soulseek and it's popular.

I downloaded it and started using it, but I found it a bit weird? The logic to download music isn't as straightforward as for example making a google search, because soulseek is peer-to-peer and even if I search "indie" as an example, what I get is a list of users who shared folders, and there is no actual order or popularity, etc. The only logical filter I got to use is flac files, because I want quality.

I already downloaded like 3 albums, but I found it weird to navigate. What I wonder is, how do you guys use soulseek to get a better experience? Are there like some public lists of recognised users who share good music? I'm guessing as soulseek is peer-to-peer, some kind of "fame" and "reputation" between users who share music must happen somehow. Are there like public lists of users to search, and download music from?

These are just my ideas, I want to better use soulseek from your experience, or maybe you use other software you'd recommend.

Here are some frequently asked questions i've seen during my time being here. Most of these questions are basic questions that have been asked multiple times already and solved by the great community we have here. I'm not against newbies, asking questions is normal and most of us are really enjoying to help newbies into getting ready to share files and to properly setup clients like Nicotine+. This FAQ might not have anything answered you're probably looking for so i heavily advice to use the Subreddits Searchbar at the top before you create any posts with a question that might have been answered before. This helps the subreddit by keeping things clean so we don't have the situation of multiple posts about one question every month (or at least less posts than in the past) thankies :3

What is "SoulseekQT" and what is "Nicotine+"?

Soulseek works by using a protocol to communicate between the computers you use to access the network. SoulseekQT and Nicotine+ are so called "clients" that make it possible for you to access the Network. SoulseekQT is newer than Nicotine+ and has less functions, but both are clients and both can access the Network in the same way.

Most Soulseekers use SoulseekQT rather than Nicotine+ as it feels more personal and closer to the user and also has some great functions. You can use both clients for Soulseek but which you end up using is a choice you end up doing :3 (you can also just use both).

How do i setup a folder so i can share files on Soulseek?

This depends on the client you use but it's always available in the settings within the client. Nicotine+ also has a handy assistant on first startup that asks you to share a folder. Also: no one that downloads from you will see the path of the files within your shares. Only you can see those. The Soulseeker that browses your files will only see what's inside the folder you share, not full paths to that folder you share.

How do i sign-up for Soulseek?

This is easy, you just get one of the freely available clients, install and open it, and then just choose a name and password. If the name is not in use, Soulseek will create the account for you automatically. If it does and the password is wrong, you will not be able to log-in. In this case you can choose another name.

Is it possible to recover my account if i lost my Password?

While there are Moderators on Soulseek active, it is usually not possible to recover your Account if you lost your credentials. In this case, just going with creating a new one is the easiest option for you to get back in.

Do i need to use a VPN in order to be safe while using Soulseek?

No, A VPN is not required in order to use Soulseek and share files. They're many Soulseekers here that don't use a VPN. The reason is because Soulseek only connects to the peer who downloads from you and not to a whole swarm of users like on a Torrent, making Soulseek safer to use. If you want another layer of security tho then feel free to get a VPN but you may experience issues using it depending on which one you end up going with.

Is there a chance of getting complains about copyright/pirating from my ISP while using Soulseek?

As you can read from above, the Soulseek network works different from torrents and because of this, it is next to unlikely that you get complains from your ISP. The ISP usually doesn't care about what you are doing. In order to send you a complaint, the ISP has to get a report from someone that enforces the copyright for labels. The people who do that use bots that connect to as much people as possible on a torrent and then reports their IP to the ISP. If this happens and you're not using a VPN, the ISP will send you a complaint. Not because you just download pirated content. This is why DDL for example is also so popular because direct downloading pirated content is safe.

What are Ports and why do i need those to be able to share files?

If you want to share files with other people on Soulseek then it is helpful to open so called "Ports" on your router. It makes it easier for other users to connect to you by doing so but it isn't needed to share or download files. It is only important that at least either you or the user you download from has open ports.

In order to even open Ports you'll need a ISP that even gives you the ability to. Specifically also an IP which can be either a dynamic one which means that it can change every now and then or a static one that stays the same. Both types have no influence on portforwarding so you will be fine if you have a static or dynamic IP-Address. If you shouldn't have the luck of owning a public IP (often also called "WAN-IP") then you can try to circumvent it by either using a VPN or another way of doing so by reading certain guides or looking up how you can get permission from your ISP to do so.

Look up guides for your specific router model if you want to know how to open ports :3

Also: We can't always help anyone with figuring out how to open Ports as they're many different router models and other requirements to take. So i recommend looking up your router model and go with guides from the internet as we are not always able to help you figure it out for you.

Do i need to share files while using Soulseek?

Yes and No. The Network keeps itself healthy because people are there who share files with you. While it's only optional to share files, many Soulseekers require you to share at least a certain amount of those so they don't ban you. Unfortunately this is not exactly newbie friendly as you will notice. So in order to prevent this from happening, you should at least share the downloads back you did or share something different you have which might be worth having on Soulseek. Really, everything is a great help in keeping this Network running :3.

I recommend to ask a Soulseeker nicely if you have any questions. Most Soulseekers out there are pretty nice and will even let you download even tho they require you to share files. And even if you get blocked, there's always someone else willing to share with you :3.

Is it likely to get a virus while downloading from Soulseek?

When you just keep downloading music, videos and movies, the chance of getting malware is usually relatively low. However i would personally not recommend to download any executables from there as well as files ending with extensions that can end up being suspicous such as .lnk and .torrent files as well as any executable scripts.

Be aware of a recent spread of malware through fake .mkv container files with the real extension being .lnk which has been going on for the past couple of days.

I am new to soulseek. What does this different colored icon for someone in my user list mean?

Depending on the Client you are on:

SoulseekQT:

Blue Bird Flying: Online and actively using

Blue Bird Sitting: Online but not using currently (like minimized or not the active window)

Red Bird Sitting: Offline

Nicotine+:

Green Dot: Online and actively using

Moon: Online but not using currently (like minimized or not the active window)

Red Dot: Offline

Both are the most common clients. If you use a different one then it can be different from here.

Does Soulseek support IPv6?

No, only IPv4 is currently supported. If you only have an IPv6 Adress, you can still use Soulseek but you will have disadvantages without a public IPv4 such as fewer results and not being able to properly share content.

My ISP uses CGNAT in order to provide me with internet, does it support forwarding a Port?

In this case it wouldn't be possible for you to forward Ports as it works by allowing multiple people to use the Internet using the same IP-Address. But a friendly user has made a guide which may be able to help you circumvent this issue :3

Is there a certain quality requirement for files in order to share on Soulseek?

While most Soulseekers require files of at least decent quality, there is no certain quality standard you need to fullfill in order to use Soulseek. You can literally just share something you've got yourself and there will be people that appreciate you sharing it. But sharing the highest of high quality files is not an requirement :3.

Is it allowed to use multiple accounts to share on Soulseek?

Yes you can have and use more than 1 account at the same time. However the rules of Soulseek say that you shouldn't connect more than 5 accounts to the Network from the same IP-Address.

Users are allowed to connect up to a maximum 5 clients from the same IP.

Worth to mention too is that you can only use your account on one client at a time, if you login on a different client with the same account you are already logged in somewhere else, then your account will automatically be logged out of the client you have connected with your account first.

I search for an Artist but the search or the wishlist i use doesn't return anything, why?

This is because of Copyright. Soulseek makes it possible for people to share copyrighted content such as movies and music which is - who would've thought - illegal in most countries of the world. Soulseek gets complaints from various labels and artists themself, asking Soulseek to take action against the people that use the Network to share copyrighted material. In order to do so, Soulseek blacklists certain Artists in the search, causing them to not appear at all when you search for them on Soulseek clients. If you want to circumvent this, search for Albums and Tracks instead and you will most likely find the Artist you were looking for.

Those are all the questions i can think of right now :3. They might be more questions which are worth it to include here but for now i hope this helps :3

EDIT: Thanks for the important feedback, i will make sure to edit this accordingly to the feedback to improve this, your feedback is very appreciated! :3 also it's my first FAQ btw so i can learn a lot on how to improve it :3

EDIT 2: Updated it, added a few more (hopefully answered) questions :3

Can Anyone please Guide me How exactly I can use soulseek. I have heard alot about it so please help.

This is my first time downloading music via P2P, and there are a lot of things I don't really know how they work, and I'd like to get some help.

1. What's considered 'good etiquette' in soulseek? I know the basics of sharing what you download and not downloading a lot of stuff from the same person, but I need to know if I'm missing some important stuff I should know.

2. Are chatrooms even alive? When I enter a chatroom, it's always empty, and it seems like no one is talking, and I'm not sure if all of them are like that or if there are some that are active.

3. When someone is downloading stuff from your computer, does it slow your computer? Where can I cap the number of people downloading stuff from me?

4. Is it reasonable to store all the music I directly listen to in my soulseek folder?

5. What does this 'Upload return policy' mean? Right now, I chose 'do not return uploads', but I'm not really sure what it does.

Thanks in advance, and by the way, sorry for my bad English and if some of those are stupid questions lol

Hello everyone! I’m looking to get into soulseek but have found that there is a rule for sharing your own music. This creates the following problems for me:

1.- I don’t have any music currently. I relied on streaming so what exactly am I going to share? How do I avoid getting banned?

2.- my internet is very very slow. If people download from my library will my internet suffer? I need it for work.

Apart from that any other rules I should be aware of?

So ive been interested in downloading my music to an sd card and after searching through many reddits i saw soulseek being constantly recommended. Im completly new to this so was wondering what i need to get started. Do i need stuff like a vpn or adblock? Is there any settings i need to change on my computer? I seen some youtube vids from a few years back on how to navigate the site somewhat so was wondering if the layouts still the same or similar. I have a fairly old laptop with like windows 7 if i recall as well so not sure if thats an issue. Apologies for all the questions,im not tech savvy so just want to get some insight from those who use the site

I downloaded Soulseekqt. I've installed it. There is a message there that says "the users want you to share files bla bla", so I selected one folder in my computer that has films, to share it with everybody.

So, going to the point, I want to find the film Parasite (2019), so I searched "parasite" and nothing appears. Then I do some controls searches like "godfather" or "lord of the rings", but again, all I have is an empty window. People say this program is great, but how does this even work? What am I missing?

Sorry to a complete dwid, this is just something I have never got into. Kazaa? Torrents? DC++? But never Soulseek.

Here’s the skinny, I have a 14,000 Albums, all 320 CBR MP3. I’m gradually changing over to FLAC. The mp3 files are a bit of a mess, but there is a fair amount of rare stuff there, from oink and wcd. I just want to share for sharing, I don’t want any files in return.

What’s the easiest way to use soulseek .. The files are on a synology NAS - I have an unraid server on 24-7, have an unused raspberry Pi.

Can someone tell a lazy person, the best way to get up and running with minimal effort.

if what i understood is true, i'm downloading files directly from other people's device because there's no central server ? and so the person i'm getting stuff from has to be online for me to download it ? sorry i'm kinda new ahah

Recently I've downloaded Soulseek. Based on certain music I wanna download, how can I tell who's more active, what rooms to go into for certain music, etc.

i started using it and it shows 0 transfert, rooms or chat, nothing

I used Ares many years ago when I was much younger and didn't know Soulseek was a thing but I'm really interested in using either Soulseek or Nicotine+. Are there any precautions I should take prior to sharing? Do I need a VPN? I saw that my IP Address is visible on Nicotine+ and I feel like that should be some cause for concern.

Apologies if this has been repeated hundreds of times but I can't find an answer. I'm new here and want to ensure I'm supporting the network as best as I can as I love P2P and FOSS.

I've set my folders for downloads and sharing, simple enough. Once my download completes I process this and arrange it in my shared folder where I store my music collection on my server and delete the folders from my downloads. I'm assuming this is absolutely fine but it's not like torrenting where it points to the new directory, is this process okay?

Any other advice would be appreciated :)

Thanks in advance.