You may want to know how to record Spotify with Audacity because the music portal doesn’t allow you to listen to the audio outside the program or web interface. Even if you buy any of its Premium plans and download the music for offline listening, you must still use the Spotify app to enjoy the songs. This is where Audacity comes into play.
With Audacity, you can get Spotify music on your PC and then play the songs on any of your favorite music players. You can even transfer the files to your smartphone or tablet and listen to them while driving or in the comfort of your cozy couch during those chilling winter evenings.
What Is Audacity?
Launched on May 28, 2000, Audacity is a free, open-source, and cross-platform audio recording and editing program that many amateurs, professional sound artists, and post-production personnel use for industry-standard outputs.
In addition, the application is rich with several options to help you add various effects to the acoustics, helping you make your music or voice more vibrant and crispier.
Main Features of Audacity
As mentioned earlier, Audacity comes with a plethora of features that you can use to fine-tune your recordings or imported audio files. Some key features that Audacity offers include:
- Live sound recording
- MP2, MP3, AIFF, WAV, and FLAC audio format support (Note: You may need to install additional plug-ins to allow Audacity to recognize some formats.)
- Duplication, cutting, grafting, and mixing of audio files to produce unique sound effects
- Tempo and pitch modifications
- Background noise removal from recordings
…and much more.
How to Use Audacity to Record Spotify Music
The process is simple as Audacity allows you to record system audio, i.e., without background noise. You can learn how to record Spotify with Audacity by following the instructions given below:
Note: Before proceeding, download the latest version of Audacity and install it on your PC. Once done, you’re good to go.
Step 1: Configure Audacity for System Sound Recording
Launch Audacity and pick Windows WASAPI from the Audio Host drop-down menu.
Choose Speakers/Headphones (2-Realtek(R) Audio) (loopback) from the Audio Source menu.
Note: The Audio Source menu options may vary depending on your PC’s microphone type and sound card. Because the Audio Host setting you configured earlier records any sound you hear, you may want to choose an appropriate audio source. However, make sure that the option you pick must be of loopback type. The Headphones (NIRVANAA 751ANC) (loopback) option is selected here for reference.
Select 2 (Stereo) Recording Channels from the Recording Channel menu.
Step 2: Choose Your Spotify Music Source
Launch your favorite web browser on your PC, visit Spotify’s official website, and sign in to your Spotify account. Alternatively, you can download and install the PC version of the Spotify app on your computer.
Search and locate the song you want to record with Audacity (but don’t play it yet).
Step 3: Record Spotify Audio with Audacity
Get back to the Audacity app and press the Record button.
Switch to the Spotify window and click the Play button for the song you want to record.
Notice how the Audacity timeline shows waveforms as the application records the audio.
Click the Stop button on Audacity once you’re done recording.
Step 4: Save the Recording
To save the recording, go to File > Export, choose your preferred output format from the submenu, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
Note: Although Audacity supports almost all common formats, you may need to install additional plug-ins to export the audio in some of them.
Limitations of Audacity Spotify Music Recorder
Although Audacity is free and offers several options for sound manipulation and modulation, it has some limitations that may keep you from using the program frequently. Some most common ones are listed below:
- You must keep the Spotify audio playback on while Audacity is recording
- You cannot batch-record audio files with Audacity
- Audacity even captures the notification sounds your PC generates during the recording process due to incoming messages, system alerts, etc.
- If you have a free Spotify account that plays ads while listening to the music, Audacity also captures those sounds. However, because these adverts pause the song temporarily and resume when the ads are over, you can use Audacity’s built-in editor to eliminate that unwanted portion to get an uninterrupted track
- To export audio files, some formats may require you to install additional plug-ins
You must also understand that although Audacity is free and has several editing options, new users may find its interface intimidating, at least during the first few days. Furthermore, you may have to go through a moderate learning curve to understand how Audacity works and to get the best output from it.
Best Alternatives to Audacity Spotify Music Recorder
Considering the above limitations, you may want to drop the idea of learning how to record Spotify with Audacity and look for some better alternatives to the program. In this context, you can refer to the following suggestions and choose the one that best suits your needs:
Alternative 1: HitPaw Spotify Music Converter
HitPaw Spotify Music Converter is an efficient tool that allows you to download Spotify tracks or playlists in one go. While downloading, the program lets you choose an output format according to the device or media player you want to play the music on.
The fact is that HitPaw Spotify Music Converter is one of the built-in gears of a main application called HitPaw Video Converter, which is a one-stop shop for all your audio, video, and photo treatments. The Toolbox section of the app allows you to do many tasks that most of its competitors don’t. For instance, with HitPaw Spotify Music Converter, you can:
- Remove background from images
- Get rid of the background noise from audio files
- Burn a DVD
- Compress photos and videos
- Remove vocals from audio tracks
…and much more.
As for obtaining Spotify music with HitPaw for offline usage, the instructions are given below:
- Launch HitPaw Spotify Music Converter after installing it on your PC
- Click Toolbox from the top of the interface
- Click Spotify Music Converter from the Toolbox window
- When HitPaw prompts, enter your Spotify login credentials to allow the program to fetch your details from the streaming music portal
- On your account page inside HitPaw, click to select the music track or playlist you want to obtain
- Click Download from the upper-right area
- When the next screen opens, ensure that you are on the Converting tab
- Choose your preferred format from the Convert all to menu at the bottom
- Choose your preferred sound quality and the download folder using the Bitrate menu and Save to field
- Click Convert All from the bottom-right to download Spotify music to your PC in your preferred format
- Go to the destination folder to access the Spotify music file(s) on your PC
Read More: The Best Spotify to MP3 Converters
Alternative 2: Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder
You can think of Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder as a lite version of Audacity that requires you to play Spotify while recording. With fewer supported formats, the tool has limited options for acoustic manipulations.
However, the program allows audio-to-text conversion, a feature that Audacity doesn’t have. In addition, Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder is a complete app that doesn’t require installing any plugin to export recorded sounds.
You can follow the instructions given below to learn how to record Spotify music with Apowersoft Stream Audio Recorder:
- Launch Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder after installing it on your computer
- Ensure that the Record option is selected from the left pane
- Choose your preferred output format from the Format menu at the bottom-right corner
- Select System Sound from the Audio Source menu, also present at the bottom-right corner
- Get to the Spotify window (on the web browser or Spotify app)
- Start playing the music track you want to record
- Quickly switch to the Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder window
- Click the Record button from the bottom
- Click Stop when you’re done recording
- Right-click the icon of the recorded file from the lower-left area of the interface
- Click Open folder from the context menu to go to the download folder to access the recorded audio
FAQs About Audacity
Is it legal to download Spotify music with Audacity or any other program?
You won’t get into trouble if you are downloading the songs for personal use and not for commercial gains. However, to answer your question, all Spotify music is DRM-protected, and public distribution of such content is illegal.
Can I use Audacity on a smartphone?
Unfortunately, no. Only PC versions of Audacity are available at the time of this writing. However, because it is a cross-platform program, you can use it for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
Which format is best for downloading Spotify music?
It depends on the target device you wish to play the music on. In any case, while WAV offers better sound quality but produces larger files, MP3 suppresses the sound by eliminating some unnecessary acoustics, but the size of files is compact and real estate-friendly.
Conclusion
Regardless of the account type, you must stay within the Spotify app (PC, smartphone, or web) to listen to the music. If you don’t like the playback options the program offers, you must learn how to record Spotify music with Audacity to get your favorite tracks on your PC and use your preferred media player app or device to enjoy the songs.
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