In recent years, there rise so many music streaming services that provide a massive catalog of music, high-quality music, and a nice listening experience. For example, there is Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz, etc. People get to listen to all genres of their favorite songs anytime and any place as long as there is an Internet connection.
Some might wonder whether it is possible to enjoy streaming music offline. The answer is positive. With a professional streaming music recorder, you can record streaming audio from any music service and play them on all devices even without Internet. Here, we collected the top 7 best streaming audio recorders, paid and free. We have also given the streaming audio recorder review on each product by listing their Pros&Cons to help you choose the one that works best for you.
#1. AudFree Audio Capture (Mac/Windows)
If you are looking for a professional streaming music recorder, AudFree Audio Capture could be the No.1 choice. It's an all-in-one software specialized in recording and editing any sound playing on computer sound card with zero quality loss. This best streaming recorder can record streaming music from various popular streaming sites like Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, or capture audio from local media players such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player. More surprisingly, this stream recorder is able to extract audio tracks from in-game sound, video sites, voice chats, live courses, and online meetings with a few clicks.
Due to this powerful audio stream recorder, you can now record streaming radio or music with ease and save them to common audio formats such as MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, etc. During the real-time recording process, AudFree Audio Capture is smart enough to detect and keep all metadata of the input audio. With a built-in editor, you are free to split audio records to small pieces, cut unwanted audio clips, merge multiple recordings into a new file, or edit any ID3 tags information of the streaming audio recording.
AudFree Audio Capture
- Record streaming music on PC
- Convert audio as WAV/MP3/WMA/AAC/FLAC/AIFF and so on
- Allow to trim and edit original audio's info
- Support capturing multiple tracks simultaneously
Pros:
Best streaming audio recorder Mac or Windows;
Support a wide variety of output audio formats and other parameters;
Get high-quality streaming music for offline listening;
Built-in editor to cut, trim, merge, or edit audio clips.
Cons:
Not free;
Cannot record sound from microphone.
How to Use AudFree Audio Capture
Step 1. Get and open the AudFree Audio Capture on your computer. And then hit 'Select/Add an App > +' to add an app that is used to play your wanted audio.
Step 2. Please click the 'Format' list below to choose an output format, then click the 'Edit' logo to set more formats for your audio. After customizing the output settings, hit the 'Create and apply' to save.
Step 3. When you choose an app on the app list, you can tap 'Start' to open it. Then find a song to play and the AudFree Audio Capture will start capturing your playing tracks. Hit 'Stop' from the AudFree, you will get the recorded audio.
Step 4. If you need to edit the recordings, you can select the corresponding options of each recording. If not, directly click the big 'Save' button below to save them on your computer. In the 'History' section, you can play and classify them easily. Besides, select 'Open' to find target audio on PC directly.
#2. Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder (Mac/Windows)
Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder Full is also a real-time streaming music recorder software, which is capable of recording streaming audio from more than 500 online radio or streaming music sites as well as any audio playing on your computer. Wondershare comes with a series of extra features, such as removing ad from the recorded streaming music and adding audio recordings to iTunes library easily.
This smart streaming audio recorder for Mac or Windows can preserve 100% original ID3 tags in the recorded music files. Plus, it also allows you to record and save any streaming music to MP3 or M4A format so that you can listen to music on portable devices and players offline, such as iPod, smart watches, MP3 players, etc.
Pros:
Easily remove ads from recorded streaming music;
Make audio records as your exclusive ringtone;
Reliable and accurate recording of streaming audio.
Cons:
Not free;
Support limited output formats, only MP3 and M4A;
Auto-split function sometimes fails;
Can be buggy due to the lack of software updates.
#3. AllToMP3 - Free Streaming Audio Recorder ((Windows/Mac/Linux))
Among many streaming audio recorders, AllToMP3 stands out as it supports Linux OS and is easy-to-use. AllToMP3 is open-source software that enables users to download streaming music to MP3 from YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, and Deezer in 256kbps.
How to record streaming audio on Mac or Winddows with AllToMP3? Visit alltomp3.org to download and install the AllToMP3 software. Simply find the songs you'd like to record from the 4 music streaming services mentioned above, copy its URL, and paste it to the search box of AllToMP3. Hit 'Enter' to start the capture procedure and when it's complete, you can play the recorded MP3 directly from the AllToMP3 app.
Pros:
Easy to use and totally free;
Available on Mac, Windows, and Linux;
Save music in 256kbps MP3 files with ID3 tags kept.
Cons:
Support to record audio streaming from 4 sites only;
Unstable real-time conversion that could make your computer hung up
Audio quality loss during the conversion process
#4. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder (Mac/Windows)
Apowersoft streaming audio recorder is a lightweight and free audio recorder. This online audio recorder is capable of recording audio from computer sound card, microphone or both, such as streaming music sites, radio stations, voice chat, etc.
After recording audio, Apowersoft allows you to customize output streaming audio's info by adding artwork cover, year, title, artist, genre, and more. But for the first-time users, they have to install a launcher to ensure a smooth recording process.
Pros:
Support multiple output formats like WAV, AAC, MP3, FLAC, etc.;
Add ID3 tags of recording as you like;
Free and no need to install extra software on computer.
Cons:
Sound quality loss during the recording;
Only upgrade to Pro version can identify music info automatically;
Do not support multi-track audio recording.
#5. AudFree Music Converter for Spotify (Mac/Windows)
AudFree Spotify Music Converter is specialized in recording streaming music from Spotify only. This Spotify music recorder Mac/Windows can record all Spotify contents losslessly at 5X speed. You can convert Spotify songs to MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A, and M4B so that you can play Spotify music on any music player and device without network connection.
There are two main reasons that I list this music converter for Spotify here among this list of the best streaming recorder. As of 2020, there are over 60 million songs in the Spotify library, so if you are looking for a music recorder Mac or Windows, this software can definitely fulfill all your needs. The other reason is that AudFree Music Converter for Spotify can download and record Spotify music using a Spotify free account.
Pros:
Listen to Spotify music offline without Premium subscription;
Convert Spotify to MP3, FLAC, AAC, WAV, etc. losslessly;
Save Spotify tracks by artist or album automatically;
Keep all metadata and support to define other audio parameters.
Cons:
Only record streaming music from Spotify;
Convert 100 songs maximum in a playlist one time.
#6. Aktiv MP3 Recorder (Windows)
Aktiv MP3 Recorder is a Windows 10 streaming audio recorder free. Once you install it on your PC successfully, this streaming audio recorder freeware enables you to capture streaming audio from thousands of sound sources. No matter you are listening to streaming music or watching a great video with pleasant background music, Aktiv streaming music recorder can capture and save playing audio tracks to MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF, etc.
One of the most special features of Aktiv is that with a built-in recording scheduler, Aktiv streaming music recorder has the ability to grab streaming audio tracks at a preset time.
Pros:
Free audio streaming recorder;
Record streaming music at a certain time;
Save streaming music to several output formats.
Cons:
Not available for Mac operating system;
Installation comes with unwanted extra software.
#7. Audacity (Mac/Windows/Linux)
Audacity is another open-source stream audio recorder free, which proficient in recording any sound from on computer sound card or microphone, and save them to MP3, WAV, AAC, etc. Apart from being an extraordinary audio recorder, Audacity is also a streaming audio editor that allows users to adjust pitch, normalize noise, add effects like reverb and phasing to the recordings.
This full-featured audio recorder and editor is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. By adopting multi-track audio recording technology, Audacity is capable of capturing multiple streaming audios simultaneously, which saves your lots of time for sure.
Pros:
Available for many operating systems;
Free streaming audio recording and editing software;
Support multi-track recording technology.
Cons:
Support a few output audio formats;
UI is a bit complicated for most users.
Bottom Line: Best Streaming Audio Recorder
No matter which streaming audio capture you choose among the top 7 best paid and free streaming audio recorders, you can freely record music from any streaming site for offline playback now.
If you prefer a free online audio recorder and don’t wanna download extra software, Apwersoft seems like a smart choice. If you enjoy streaming music from Spotify only, you can choose the exclusive AudFree Spotify Music Converter that is specifically designed to record and download Spotify music at high speed. If you care much about the listening experience and recording efficiency, you are highly recommended to give AudFree Audio Capture a try to help you play any streaming music offline on any device.
Overall, it all depends on your needs. If you have time, you can test and compare the listed streaming audio recorders yourself and then make your final decision. Don't forget to let us know what your final decision is.
Roger Kelly
Staff Editor
