How to Record and Export Spotify Music with Audacity

By Adam Gorden Updated on August 11, 2023

Spotify, as one of the biggest online music streaming providers, hits millions of music fans from all over the world with more than 70 million high-quality songs. But there's a fun fact about this internet giant, none of its 356 million users get access to listen to its music outside the Spotify platform.

If you're a free Spotify user, you must be putting up with endless ads that pop up in the middle of the song when you're vibing to it. Or if you're a Premium user, songs downloaded from Spotify can not be played by any MP3 player other than Spotify itself.

Here's the solution, you can record Spotify with Audacity on the Windows system, and then you'll be able to play them offline with any music player no matter you're a paid user or not.

Audacity logo

Part 1. How to Use Audacity to Record and Export Spotify

Audacity is a free open-source digital audio editor and recording software. It can be applied to record audio from a wide variety of sources including record sounds from the internal speaker of the computer, which means with using audacity, music played on Spotify by the computer can be captured to the software and outputted in MP3, WAV, Ogg Vorbis or any other formats. Down below is a quick guide on how to record Spotify music with Audacity.

Step 1Configure Audio Host

  1. Open Audacity.
  2. Go to the toolbar and click on "Edit."
  3. Select "Preferences" from the dropdown menu.
  4. audacity edit preferences

  5. In the Preferences window, click on "Audio Settings" in the left-hand sidebar.
  6. audacity audio settings

  7. Under the "Interface" section, locate the "Host" dropdown menu.
  8. Choose an option from the "Host" dropdown menu, such as "Windows WASAPI" for better performance (recommended).

Step 2Start Recording and Playback Devices

  1. Still the "Audio Settings", locate the "Playback" and "Recording" sections.
  2. Under "Playback," choose the appropriate device you will be using to listen to the audio (e.g., "Speaker" or "Headphone").
  3. Under "Recording," select the loopback input option (e.g., "Speakers (loopback)") to capture the audio output from your playback device.
  4. Click "OK" to save your preferences.

Step 3Record Spotify with Audacity

  1. In Audacity, click on the red "Record" button in the toolbar to start recording.
  2. Make sure Spotify is open and playing the audio you want to record. You can record for as long as you want, but keep an eye on the "disk space remaining" message in the Status bar.
  3. disk space remaining for recording for audicity

  4. When you're done recording, pause the audio playback in Spotify by clicking "Pause" in the Spotify app.
  5. In Audacity, click the "Stop" button to finish recording.

Step 4Export the Recording

  1. After stopping the recording in Audacity, you can trim and edit the Spotify recording by using Audacity Audio Editor.
  2. audacity edit tool

  3. To export the recordings, go to the toolbar and click on "File."
  4. Select "Export" from the dropdown menu.
  5. Choose "Export Audio…" to open the Export Audio window.
  6. In the Export Audio window, you can set the file format (e.g., WAV or MP3) and specify the location where you want to save the file.
  7. Click "Save" to export the recording.

Limitations:

Configuring the audio output to record audio from specific applications, like Spotify, can be challenging for beginners. The process involves adjusting system settings, which might not be intuitive or straightforward for users unfamiliar with audio routing.

Alternative Solutions:

You might explore more suitable alternatives like ViWizard Music Converter and Audio Capture. These solutions feature user-friendly interfaces, straightforward setup procedures, and comprehensive step-by-step guides. They empower users to effortlessly download, convert, and record Spotify music, streamlining the process of capturing and export Spotify audio content.

Part 2. Best Audacity Alternative to Download and Convert Spotify

Recording audio directly from the computer's sound output might result in a loss of audio quality compared to the original source. This can be especially noticeable if you're trying to capture high-quality music from Spotify by using Audacity. Alternative to Audacity can offer better handing of audio quality can provide more professional solution, such as ViWizard Music Converter.

spotify music converter

Key Features of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter

Free Trial Free Trial

* Security verified. 5, 481,347 people have downloaded it.

  • Download Spotify songs, albums, playlists, podcasts, audiobooks
  • Convert Spotify music to lossless MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, M4B
  • Support playing offline Spotify music on any device at any time
  • Compatible with Windows and macOS, as well as, the latest Spotify

ViWizard Spotify Music Converter is designed to convert Spotify Ogg Vorbis into various formats like MP3, M4A, M4B, WAV, AAC, and FLAC with no quality loss. It is dedicated to help both Premium and free users to download various audio content in batch, including songs, playlists, albums, podcasts, and even audiobooks. While using Audacity to record Spotify music in real-time may be time-consuming, ViWizard's fast conversion speed can help save time and efforts.

Feature ViWizard Music Converter Audacity Record
Audio Quality 100% lossless Lossy
Download Method Convert and download audio files. Record and export audio files.
Cross-Platform Windows, and macOS Windows, macOS, and Linux
Audio Format MP3, M4A, M4B, WAV, AAC, and FLAC MP3, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, AU, Ogg Vorbis
Download Speed 5x or 1x 1x
Additional Features Batch download; perseveres metadata and artwork. Allows to edit and trim your recordings.

Step 1Add Spotify Music Tracks to ViWizard

Launch ViWizard Spotify Music Converter and then the Spotify app will be pulled up automatically. Drag and drop the audio tracks to ViWizard interface. They'll be automatically uploaded.

add spotify music

Step 2Setting Output Format and Parameters

Once completed loading input files, you can click the Format button in the bottom left and choose the output format among MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, and M4B. You can also click the Output button and choose the output location.

select output format

Step 3Start Converting

With format setting done, press the Convert button and ViWizard will start the conversion process. When it is done, you can find all your converted songs by clicking the Converted button. And then you can put them and play them anywhere you want.

convert spotify songs

Part 3. Best Audacity Alternative to Record and Export Spotify

Audacity itself has a learning curve, especially for beginners who are new to audio editing software. If you still prefer recording audio from Spotify or other streaming platforms using an audio editing software can provide a simpler solution like ViWizard Audio Capture.

youtube music converter

Key Features of ViWizard Audio Capture

Free Trial Free Trial

* Security verified. 5, 481,347 people have downloaded it.

  • Capture Spotify audios, songs, and playlists in high quality
  • Save audio from Spotify to MP3, AAC, M4A, WAV, FLAC, M4B
  • Support multi-track audio recording for Spotify
  • Record music from Tidal, Deezer, Pandora and other streaming audios

ViWizard Audio Capture is a dedicated software designed for capturing and recording audio from various sources, including streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Bandcamp and more. It offers a user-friendly interface and specialized features for recordings audio content. While Audacity is a versatile audio editing software, ViWizard Audio Capture focused specifically on audio capture and offers some advantages for recording Spotify songs.

Feature ViWizard Audio Capture Audacity Record
Audio Quality 100% lossless Lossy
Download Method Record and export audio files. Record and export audio files.
Cross-Platform Windows, and macOS Windows, macOS, and Linux
Audio Format MP3, M4A, M4B, WAV, AAC, and FLAC MP3, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, AU, Ogg Vorbis
Download Speed 1x 1x
Additional Features Batch recording. Retain important metadata; Adjust sample rate, bit rate, channel, and codec. Spilt and merge recorded audio tracks as needed; Edit and trim the recordings. Edit and trim the recordings.

Step 1Access Spotify as Sound Platform

Download and install ViWizard Audio Capture and launch it on your computer. You'll see the main interface and access a list of available applications. To access Spotify as one of the source platforms, click on the "+" icon and add the Spotify app for desktop to it.

main interface

Step 2Setting Output Format and Parameters

To preset output format like sample rate, bit rate, channel, and codec, click the Format icon and locate the format section. Choose the desired format from the dropdown menu. You can also configure other options available there. Once the setting done, click OK to save.

set format

Step 3Record Audio from Spotify

Now click the Spotify app icon within ViWizard Audio Capture. When the Spotify app for desktop is opened, navigate to the Spotify songs, playlists, albums, podcasts or audiobooks you want to record. Start playing the target one and ViWizard will automatically start recording the audio played in Spotify. You can play multiple tracks simultaneously, and the recorder will detect the tracks and divide them into independent songs. To stop the recording, click on the "Stop" button.

capture list

Step 4Save Audio from Spotify

Before saving the recording, you can edit and trim the unwanted sections. To export the recording, click the "Save" button. And ViIWizard Audio Capture will export the audio files to the designated folder location.

records history

The Bottom Line

Of course, you can't go wrong with the free Audacity software to record Spotify music, but if you're a rookie to professional audio editor and recorder, you could probably go wrong though. While the ViWizard Spotify Music Converter provides an ultra-fast method to help you complete downloading music from Spotify, just go and give it a try, you'll find the best way for yourself.

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