RLS (for Reddit so Loved SoundCloud)

RLS searches Reddit, finds posts and comments with links to SoundCloud and downloads any tracks it can get (single track, whole artist or set/playlist).

Features

Search for specific keywords by subreddit (eg 'soundcloud CC-BY' in /r/gamedev)
Allows non-Creative Commons tracks to be excluded (--free-only)
Creates one directory per artist to keep things organized.
Doesn't download tracks again if they already exist locally^*
Downloads album cover art.
Downloads SoundCloud metadata for the artist (metadata.json).

* (strictly, this is a feature of the wonderful `youtube-dl` used in the backend that we get for free)

Installation

virtualenv -p python3 ~/.virtualenvs/rls
source ~/.virtualenvs/rls/bin/activate
python3 setup.py develop

# pip3 install -U -r requirements.txt

Setup

cp config.toml.example config.toml

Edit config.toml to include required API keys for Reddit (and maybe SoundCloud)

Usage

See the help message

./rls

Search /r/gamedev for "soundcloud" and "CC-BY" and download any tracks in links to SoundCloud.

./rls search gamedev "soundcloud CC-BY"

Search /r/gamedev for "soundcloud" and "CC-0" and download only free/open licenced tracks.

./rls search gamedev "soundcloud CC-0" --free-only

Search /r/futuresynth for "soundcloud" and "CC-0", only free/open tracks, output to a directory /tmp/futuresynth.

./rls search futuresynth "soundcloud CC-0" --free-only --output=/tmp/futuresynth

Search /r/dreampop posts up to one week old for "soundcloud", download linked tracks.

./rls search futuresynth "soundcloud" --time=week

A note about music licensing

Please always check and respect the license a musician applies to their music. "Creative Commons" licenses come in different flavours that usually require proper attribution and might restrict commercial use and/or remixing. Read the license and understand it.

Be aware that using the Reddit search term "CC-BY" or "CC-0" etc does not guaranetee that the tracks downloaded are free to use, they simply narrow the search to make it more likely you will find tracks with a Creative Commons license. You should always check the license yourself on the associated SoundCloud page (or in metadata.json) if you plan to reuse a track for some creative purpose.

Often musicians and composers post links to Reddit with a statement that "these tracks are under a CC-BY license", but fail to update the license on SoundCloud, making the status of the license potetially unclear. The --free-only flag excludes any tracks licensed as all-rights-reserved on SoundCloud, allowing you to have more certainty that you are downloading only Creative Commons (or similar) licensed tracks.

TODO / wishlist

Make m3u playlists for 'sets'.