# Soulseek

25 Hacker News commenters recommended Soulseek and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Soulseek for finding obscure music, rare live recordings and well-organised discographies that are hard to find elsewhere. Critics say its central server censors searches and bans users.

## Why people recommend it

- Still active and working today (6 comments): "It's still very much alive, been using it for years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930796)) "Soulseek lets you do this and is still going" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268373)) "Soulseek is great still use it regularly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48931267))
- Deep library of obscure music (4 comments): "The amount of extremely obscure music on there is crazy, stuff that exists nowhere else on the internet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46341494)) "It's crazy how convenient and deep the library on soulseek is. I even use it all the time on mobile." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46385655)) "SSK is the best of anything mentioned here. You can find everything." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48934974))
- Easiest way to download music (2 comments): "I find it the easiest way to find large, nicely organized discographies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272727)) "easiest way to download music these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48930891))
- Community of like-minded music fans (2 comments): "Soulseek especially had a community where you found someone who was into the same kind of music" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48931080)) "people who cared about sound quality and metadata" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46340704))

## What people warn about

- Users get banned or shadowbanned (3 comments): "The first time I was banned for Village People, then for The Weeknd." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48940888)) "I've been shadowbanned 4 times or so. They never unban, need new account." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936094)) "They never unban, need new account." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48933026))
- Centralised server censors searches (2 comments): "Soulseek is centralised, and censors searches in compliance with legal requests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580690)) "the network (central server) is proprietary" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932395))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Soulseek", https://hackerapproved.com/p/soulseek/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).