Soulseek
Hacker ApprovedFile sharing client in Audio
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.
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.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still active and working today
“It's still very much alive, been using it for years.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” “Soulseek lets you do this and is still going”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “2002: Last.fm and Audioscrobbler Herald the Social Web” “Soulseek is great still use it regularly.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” - Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy”
- Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy”
- Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns”
Deep library of obscure music
“The amount of extremely obscure music on there is crazy, stuff that exists nowhere else on the internet”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Backing up Spotify” “It's crazy how convenient and deep the library on soulseek is. I even use it all the time on mobile.”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Backing up Spotify” “SSK is the best of anything mentioned here. You can find everything.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” - Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid”
Easiest way to download music
“I find it the easiest way to find large, nicely organized discographies”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “2002: Last.fm and Audioscrobbler Herald the Social Web” “easiest way to download music these days”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” Community of like-minded music fans
“Soulseek especially had a community where you found someone who was into the same kind of music”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” “people who cared about sound quality and metadata”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Backing up Spotify”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Users get banned or shadowbanned
“The first time I was banned for Village People, then for The Weeknd.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” “I've been shadowbanned 4 times or so. They never unban, need new account.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” “They never unban, need new account.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” Centralised server censors searches
“Soulseek is centralised, and censors searches in compliance with legal requests.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns” “the network (central server) is proprietary”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy”
What people said
28 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Very refreshing to experience parts of the old world that have survived like soulseek”
“it feels a lot more fragile than torrenting”
“Soulseek is centralised, and censors searches in compliance with legal requests.”
“Soulseek is working fine.”
“users can send you anything they want like troll audio or malware”
“The first time I was banned for Village People, then for The Weeknd.”
“My client serves and average of 50-100 downloads a day no problem.”
“I've been shadowbanned 4 times or so. They never unban, need new account.”
“SSK is the best of anything mentioned here. You can find everything.”
“They never unban, need new account.”
“Soulseek is still going strong”
“the network (central server) is proprietary”
“Soulseek is great still use it regularly.”
“Soulseek is still going hard.”
“Soulseek especially had a community where you found someone who was into the same kind of music”
“easiest way to download music these days”
“It's still very much alive, been using it for years.”
“SoulSeek was also pretty good for finding obscure music.”
“It's crazy how convenient and deep the library on soulseek is. I even use it all the time on mobile.”
“The amount of extremely obscure music on there is crazy, stuff that exists nowhere else on the internet”
“people who cared about sound quality and metadata”
“Soulseek has to be the best kept secret on the internet.”
“WCD has two healthy replacements, plus slsk”
“I regularly use soulseek to download archival copies of music that I pay for.”
“soulseek (Nicotine+ is nice)”
“I find it the easiest way to find large, nicely organized discographies”
“I discovered so many artists, international variations of albums, live sessions and bootlegs from that app, it changed my relationship with music.”
“Soulseek lets you do this and is still going”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.