If you’ve used SoundCloud for any time at all, you’ve probably come across at least a couple of tracks, songs, or podcasts that you want to download and keep around for later. That’s no problem at all — SoundCloud allows you to download those tracks without any issue, and natively as well. There are some tracks, however, that you just cannot download. This means you’ll need to use third-party software to get those tracks onto your mobile device or computer.
So if you’re ready to download your favorite SoundCloud tracks to your mobile phone, tablet, or computer, follow along below. We’ll show you how!
Download SoundCloud Tracks
The neat thing about SoundCloud is that they know that you’ll come across songs, podcasts, or other tracks that you want to download and keep with you. That’s why they’ve built a download button into their service that will allow you to save those tracks as files on one of your devices.
The first step is to create or log into your SoundCloud account. Once you’re logged in, visit the track that you want to download onto your device. You’ll find the Download button right below the left side of the waveform.
Sometimes that download button won’t be there. And that’s because SoundCloud leaves it up to the user on whether or not they can make their songs downloadable.
Offline Listening
While there are some tracks that just cannot be downloaded, you can still download many of them for offline listening. This isn’t the same as downloading a track, because selecting or choosing a track for offline listening will not create a file that you can access on your smartphone or tablet.
It’s also worth noting that offline listening will require you to be subscribed to one of SoundCloud’s subscription services — SoundCloud Go or SoundCloud Go+. SoundCloud Go will provide you with ad-free listening and the ability to download tracks for offline listening, whereas SoundCloud Go+ will give you access to over 120 million tracks to listen to.
Klickaud
If you insist on downloading a track as as file that you can access, you’ll need to use third-party software to make this happen. One SoundCloud Downloader that you can use is a free service called Klickaud. Put the URL to a SoundCloud track in the field on the website and hit the big Download button. This will download a high quality 128-bit or 320-bit MP3 to your computer, smartphone, or tablet.
Alternatively, you can use another downloader called 9SoundCloudDownloader, which allows you to download your favorite tracks and songs from SoundCloud in a high quality format. Similar to Klickaud, just put the track URL into the field and hit the Download button.
Be careful what you download
It’s worth noting that using a Downloader like outlined above isn’t recommended. While it will get you what you want, you’re doing it without permission from the creator. There’s a reason why the creator didn’t make their song or track downloadable in the first place, and that’s probably because they didn’t want to give the source file to the world.
That said, if you want the audio track or song that bad, it’s best to reach out to the creator before taking things into your own hands and downloading the track with a downloader.
Make your tracks downloadable
If you’re a creator on SoundCloud and aren’t sure how to make your tracks downloadable for the public, it’s actually quite easy. You can actually set this options for each individual song. You just need to go into the Preferences tab for your track, and choose to enable or disable downloads for that track. Some creators choose not to do this because they’re afraid of their work being stolen, and rightly so.
Verdict
As you can see, it’s extremely easy to download a track from SoundCloud. SoundCloud provides a native way for you to get that file on your computer, but if that’s not available, they’ll even let you choose tracks for offline listening. Follow the steps above, and you’ll have your favorite SoundCloud tracks on your smartphone or tablet in no time!