I’ve just started using Soulseek and it’s great. I want to make sure that I’m being a good neighbour on it - do I need to do anything to ensure that my files are available for others to download? And do I need to structure directories e.g Artist name > Album name or does it work off metadata?
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I think a VPN with port forwarding helps make your library discoverable on soulseek, but I don’t know enough to answer beyond that
I use Nicotine+ as my client. You nailed it on the file structure. I also run all my files through Picard to make sure everything is all good.
As far as ensuring that your files are available for download, you’ll have to check/set the permissions for the drive/folder where they’re stored.
As far as being a good neighbour - make your files available and communicate. (I honestly don’t understand why folks make tracks “private.”)
A friend of mine kept all his music in the same folder, including music he created. Prevention of theft might be a reason to mark as music, although this is a very niche use case.
Prevention of theft might be a reason to mark as private, although this is a very niche use case.
What a hilarious point of view considering the circumstances
Saying ‘prevention of theft’ is a poor suggestion on my end and an incorrect depiction of his motives and usage of Soulseek. I can’t say for sure really, he passed away in 2021 so I’ll never know his motives. I tried to think of a reason why someone might mark something private and that’s what I ended up with. I probably should have thought this through better.
He used a lot of samples for his music using multitracks, the releases from artists meant specifically for remixing and sampling and I believe searching for multitracks from lesser known artists was his main use for Soulseek, basically networking, not piracy, and that he also had poor file and project management?
I’m not sure how to convey the connection that I saw in my head. I probably should have left this post alone.
This is my pet fucking hate. Within the genre I download / share so many people have all their files private and they want you to give them shit like bandcamp vouchers and stuff like that to have access to their locked files. It fucking boils my piss and it goes against the whole point of piracy as I see it.
I purposefully block all these fucking cunts, all my files are wide open to everyone and I am constantly getting a lot of new releases so if they want to lock their files they can’t have the privilege of sharing in my stuff, utter pieces of shit.
Exactly.
So far, I’ve been able to find pretty much everything without issues but the amount of private files that come up is crazy. The few I haven’t found, I’ve been able to download from SoundCloud.
I’ve had some folks switch their files to private while I was downloading. I ban them.
Compared to others out there, my collection isn’t big, but all of my files are shared.
I use nicotine+, and you have to set the port you’re using, and either make sure it’s forwarded, or turn your router’s uPNP setting on so that nicotine will handle the port for you.
I only have slskd, so I’m not sure if it’s different, but folder structure should have artist > album, but outside of that it doesn’t matter much. My folder names all contain musicbrainz ids for use in jellyfin, but I’ve had plenty of uploads.
Artist name, album name and track name should exist in file name or parent folder/s. Does not use metadata. You should open soulseeks port in your router. Maybe your router has upnp enabled, if so, you can enable upnp in your soulseek client and you are good to go. If you do not open the port, only users with open port can download from you. Remember to share the music you download too. Welcome to slsk :)
my folder structure is like:
└── genres ├── Acapellas ├── Afrobeat ├── Ambient ├── BASSSSSSSSSSSSSS ├── Bollywood ├── Breakbeat ├── Chutney ├── Country ├── Dancehall ├── DUBSTEPand people download my files just fine, sometimes they just download entire folders since I organize by genre, not artist.
I’m curious about your Bollywood folder. How big is it? I want to build a structured collection of old songs, and new ones too in as high quality as possible. I have nicotine+ installed but so far I couldn’t find anyone with an authoritative collection.
Ahh, my bollywood folder is fairly small right now, under 20 tracks. I tend to fill my library either with albums I’m curious about, or with songs I’ve heard and really want to replay for the future.
Once in a while, you can find people who have some decent collections, but since not everyone logs on at once, it’s sometimes a game of cat and mouse. If I can’t find it on the soulseek network, I’ll grab stuff from places like doubledouble, usually for things that are very new.
I’m going to try and do this… but I have like 14 iPod classics worth of music to genre… Time to break out the old MusicBrainz Picard, I guess, just to make sure all the metadata is right. I have some wild stuff, too, like German Beatles songs and weird classical piano I’ve never heard of.
I was a little leery of how Soulseek works, so I backed out last second. I’ve never been trustful of the whole folder sharing thing, even on LAN. I’m going to go for it, though. The world should hear the weird stuff and the good songs I’ve ripped off old iPods.
You probably have to set somewhere which folder(s) you want to be discoverable.
Regarding directory structure, Soulseek search only uses file names as far as I as know. So having a consistent naming structure certainly helps. Some tools like the fantastic MusicBrainz Picard might help!
Structured folders also helps since you can download whatever folder a specific song is in so typically the folder would be the album title with the artist one level higher.
The search uses filenames and parent folders.
