How to get audio from SoundCloud — download a track as MP3 or WAV, free

Step 1 — Copy the track link and paste it in

In the SoundCloud app, open the track, tap Share and then Copy link. On the web, the address bar already has it: a track’s address looks like soundcloud.com/artist/track-name. Paste it into the editor and press Extract Audio.

The app’s share sheet gives you a short on.soundcloud.com link rather than the full address. Paste it as it is: it is followed to the track before anything else happens. Album and playlist links, the ones with /sets/ in them, work too and open a list of their tracks (more on that below).

Step 2 — Drag a selection over the part you want

The highlighted region on the waveform is your cut. There is no separate in/out mode to enter:

• Drag the region’s edges to set where the audio starts and ends.
• Click the waveform to seek, then play or loop the selection and check it by ear.
• Zoom in when an edge matters: the peaks show you where a beat or a word actually lands.

Want the whole track instead? Skip the trimming: the download menu offers the full track as well as the selection. Making a ringtone? Most phones want 30 to 40 seconds, and the selection shows its length as you drag.

Step 3 — Download it as MP3 or WAV

MP3 is small and plays anywhere, the right pick for listening or for a ringtone. WAV is uncompressed, which is what you want if the clip is going into an editor or a project: it avoids another round of lossy compression on the way in.

Worth being straight about quality. SoundCloud streams its audio at about 128 kbps as MP3, or 160 kbps as AAC, so whatever you export at, neither file sounds better than SoundCloud did. A WAV is an exact copy of that stream, not a recovery of the original recording. If the artist offers a Download button, that file is the real original.

Which SoundCloud links work, and which do not

What usually works: uploads by independent artists, remixes and edits, and DJ mixes and podcasts up to 60 minutes long, pasted as a full address, a short on.soundcloud.com link, or an album or playlist link.

What does not:

• Most big label releases. Label releases are often protected, and those won’t work: SoundCloud locks them with DRM, Samplecut does not get around it, and so a chart hit usually won’t open.
• Tracks SoundCloud only previews. A track that only Go+ subscribers can play in full doesn’t work here: everyone else gets a short preview, and that is all there would be to cut.
• Private, deleted or region-blocked tracks. If a track won’t play for you in a logged-out browser tab, it won’t open here.
• Anything over 60 minutes. Long DJ mixes and podcast episodes often run past it.

When a track can’t be cut, you’re told why, and if its artist has turned on downloads you get a link to the track on SoundCloud, where its own Download button is.

Albums and playlists: pick the track you want

Paste an album or playlist link and you get its track list instead of a waveform. Pick a track, cut it, then go back to the list for the next one. Tracks that can’t be cut are marked in the list, so you can see that before you pick.

There is no “download all” button, and that is on purpose: Samplecut cuts one track at a time.

Keeping the cut, and who owns the sound

Save keeps the current selection as a cut, so you can take several pieces out of one track without loading it again; each saved cut renames and downloads on its own. Publishing a cut, the one action that asks you to sign in, gives it a permanent page with its own link to share.

The track belongs to the artist. Cutting a piece for yourself is one thing; reposting, releasing or monetising it needs their permission or a licence.

Getting audio from a YouTube video instead? Cut audio from YouTube to WAV or MP3 walks the same editor.