A quick look at using spotDL to back up your Spotify library
2024-09-06
Although I still believe that my switch from RiMusic to Spotify is somewhat controversial and not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I'm starting to notice some major quality of life improvements - not only in everyday use, but also when it comes to backing up my library. Until now I had to manually recreate my RiMusic playlists on the desktop and download them via a third-party app from YouTube Music, which was quite an effort, could be automated in theory and thus wasn't done as frequently as it should have been. Luckily, an awesome project called spotDL exists that automates this hassle for all of us Spotify users, so let's take a quick look at it...
At your first glance, you might be extremely stocked about the fact that methods to download all user playlists and/or saved albums exist, but they put all songs into s single folder and thus aren't really an ideal solution. This doesn't mean that spotDL is a bad piece of software, you just have to know how to do it properly with some (but very minor) human assistance:
-
Download spotDL:
pip3 install spotdl -
Check for successful install:
python3 -m spotdl -
Create separate folders for each playlist or album you want to back up, then:
- Copy a link to the playlist/album from Spotify's sharing menu
- Open a terminal in this folder
-
Run
python3 -m spotdl sync [link] --save-file [playlist/album name].sync.spotdlreplacing the parts in brackets with your data - Wait for the operation to finish, this can take quite a few minutes depending on the playlist/album size
- Repeat these steps for all playlists/albums
-
To update your backup, simply run
python3 -m spotdl sync [playlist/album name].sync.spotdlinside all folders - If you encounter an error (especially related to timeouts) during the process, just try to rerun the command - it usually works on the second or third attempt
Of course, we have to keep in mind that this application also sources its data from YouTube Music making some songs, podcasts or albums not available for backup, but as a free (as in freedom) and easy to use solution for backing up your library or just downloading your songs as MP3s for other uses (like DJing) it's pretty amazing in my mind. With that said, have a lovely day and see you next week...