Using seeqpod to download MP3s

UPDATE: I found an even better way to download music from Seeqpod – use sadsteve.com – it has the ability to download built into the site. I use it all the time and never use Seeqpod any more. Give it a try.

So, there’s this site called SeeqPod that allows you to play just about any song you can think of but doesn’t allow you (easily) to download them. So, I fired up Firefox and used the LiveHTTPHeaders addon to see what was going on. Sure enough, the URL to the file is there, but it’s somewhat of a pain to get to and download the file. So, I saw another URL go by with /api/ in it. I poked around and figured out a pretty easy way to use it to download songs. Here’s how:

First, you’ll want to have the linkification plugin installed in Firefox. One of the things it does is make URLs in XML clickable. We need that functionality. Once you have it installed, do this:

Bookmark this link in Firefox (don’t click it, just bookmark it – there is nothing interesting there yet). Now edit the bookmark and change the CHANGETHIS to %s and put in something for the keyword. I used sp for seeqpod.

Now, suppose I want Weird Al’s White and Nerdy song…. I just type
sp white nerdy
in Firefox and I get an XML document with links to the song. With the linkification plugin, I can just double click on the URL and it will download the song for me.

This trick will work in IE, you just have to do some of this by hand (the initial search, copy paste the MP3 URL, etc). It’s just much easier with Firefox.

If this news gets out, I expect Seeqpod to change the way they do things pretty quick so enjoy it while you can – not sure why I’m even sharing this. if someone were really motivated, you could write a plugin that gives you a webpage full of links or download the first hit automatically or something – again though, they will probably close this loop soon now. If you liked this article, check out the original article I did that discussed most of these techniques:
How to find and download hidden music from websites.

[tags]mp3, mp3s, freemusic, seeqpod, download, downloads[/tags]

12 thoughts on “Using seeqpod to download MP3s

  1. mt

    Hmmm, the API offered by seeqpod is documented on their own page, see http://www.seeqpod.com/api.

    The API described there uses a slightly changed syntax, where you can use your own API UID, which is available for free for every user, see “Edit profile” in seeqpod.

    I used the API to write a small piece of win32-software, which can be found under http://www.absurde-zeiten.de/seeqSearch

    Sorry for my bad english, my german is much better ;-)

    regards, Mario

    Reply
  2. dizzle

    it doesnt work at all for me. i get the same text to willam H burrows for whatever i search for and there is no XML links.

    Reply
  3. X

    This is a neat little trick – but there is a much easier way.

    There’s a media download add-on for Firefox that puts an icon in the toolbar which spins when it detects a media link on a page (flv, mp3, whatever). Clicking on it brings up a list of files, choose the one you want to download.

    Unfortunately I accidentally uninstalled and now I can’t remember which add on it was! If you want to play detective, the icon was three colored dots that span around when active. happy hunting – in the meantime I’ll be using this trick!

    Reply
  4. Reply to X

    For X and anyone else who wanted the app X was talking about, its called DownloadHelper; google it, its a neat firefox extension

    Reply
  5. JHuman

    I agree; the only thing missing from mp3 search engines is the ability to download the tracks. You should check out http://sadsteve.com for this type of functionality, which is one-click downloading and allows for full length streaming as well.

    If all you need to do is just download a song or two, this site is a godsend- http://sadsteve.com

    Reply
  6. ColdFire

    http://www.seeqpod.com/iphone
    Go there and use the third box down to search for what you want to download… Simple.

    I don’t know how that sadsteve one works, not had chance to look at it in depth yet, but it produces exactly the same results in the same order as my seeqpod method, so I think its got to be related…
    Peace.
    ColdFire

    Reply
  7. Yura Nuphag

    it sucks, downloadhelper doesn’t seem to work anymore. oh well, i’ve found several other methods that work. i like the firefox cache method right now, or the IE temporary internet items folder trick.

    Reply
  8. whelp

    Sadsteve doesn’t work anymore. (Mar, 2009)

    An alternative method.

    – Install the Firebug extension for firefox. Activate it and switch it on.
    – Go the iphone interface : http://www.seeqpod.com/mobile/iphone.php
    – Do a search for the song/artist
    – Click the “Inspect” button in Firefbug – and point to any search result.
    – Expand the small grey triangle till you see the URL for the mp3 (right next to the words “green_url” – for those who know CSS – thats the SPAN name)

    Cheers

    Reply

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