Building Your Personal Music Collection From Spotify

Streaming services are convenient, but there’s something special about having your own music library. Whether you’re preparing for a camping trip with no internet, creating backups of your favorite tunes, or just prefer owning your music, here’s how I’ve built my personal collection from Spotify playlists.

The Tool of Choice: Spotdl

After trying several options, I’ve found spotdl to be the most reliable tool for this job. It’s open-source, actively maintained, and provides high-quality downloads with proper metadata.

Installation

Getting spotdl up and running is straightforward:

pip install spotdl

If you prefer using it through Docker:

docker pull spotdl/spotify-downloader

Basic Usage

The simplest way to use spotdl is to download a single song:

spotdl download "https://open.spotify.com/track/4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT"

You can also download by song name:

spotdl download "never gonna give you up"

Working with Playlists

The real power comes when downloading entire playlists:

spotdl download "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZEVXbMDoHDwVN2tF"

This will download every song in the playlist, complete with metadata and album art.

Batch Processing with a File

For more organized downloading, create a text file with URLs:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT
https://open.spotify.com/track/6rqhFgbbKwnb9MLmUQDhG6
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZEVXbLRQDuF5jeBp

Then run:

spotdl download tracks.txt

Customizing Your Downloads

Spotdl offers several options to tailor your downloads:

# Specify output format (mp3, opus, ogg, m4a, flac)
spotdl download --output-format mp3 "song name"

# Set output directory
spotdl download --output ~/Music/Spotify "song name"

# Use a specific audio quality
spotdl download --bitrate 320k "song name"

Keeping Your Library Updated

I’ve set up a simple script to keep my music library in sync with my favorite playlists:

#!/bin/bash
PLAYLISTS_FILE="~/spotify_playlists.txt"
OUTPUT_DIR="~/Music/Spotify"

# Download any new songs from playlists
spotdl download --output $OUTPUT_DIR $PLAYLISTS_FILE

You could run this script weekly with a cron job to keep everything fresh.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you encounter problems:

  1. Download errors: Try using the --skip-errors flag to continue downloading even if some tracks fail
  2. Metadata issues: Use --overwrite skip to avoid redownloading songs that already exist
  3. Rate limiting: Add pauses between downloads with --sleep-interval 5

Ethical Considerations

While these tools exist and work well, remember that supporting artists is important. I use this approach primarily for songs I’ve already paid for through my subscription, and for creating offline backups of music I love.

What’s your approach to building a personal music library in the streaming age? Do you prefer physical media, digital files, or are you all-in on streaming?