Bootleg Trading Tools
As a bootleg trader you will find that you need to add a few “special” software tools to your collection. This article outlines the best bootleg trading tools for your audio & video needs.
This is a list of various types of FREE software that you can use in the course of your everyday metal bootleg trading. You may find that some of these bootleg trading tools are a total MUST HAVE!
AUDIO TOOLS:
- Trader’s Little Helper: Software to help with checking md5, flac fingerprints, creating a torrent file, editing audio & much more!
- AIMP: Free music player.
- Foobar2000: Free music player.
- Audacity: Great little tool for mastering & editing a show as well as grabbing a spectral analysis for an audio bootleg.
- Hub Audio Tools: Handy little program for getting analysis, checking/creating md5 checksums & more! As you can no longer find this on the site linked I have added it HERE. Please note this software has not been updated in quite a few years so it may or may not work for you. It lacks functionality with Windows 7 & 10. If you have a problem downloading it contact me.
VIDEO TOOLS:
- VLC: The best video player.
- MediaInfo: A great tool for checking your video technical information.
- GSpot: For older PC’S a video info tool similar to MediaInfo.
- DVD Decryptor: A DVD tool to rip a show to your hard drive. It is especially useful for DVD’S that are hard to drag & drop off the disc.
- Handbrake: Video transcoder.
UTILITY TOOLS:
- 7zip: A great, free zip/unzip tool that will work with many different varieties of zip-like files.
- PeaZip: Another great free archiver to manage zip, rar and many other file types.
TORRENT CLIENTS:
- uTorrent: Probably one of the most popular torrent software clients.
- qBittorrent: Another great torrent client.
- Deluge Bittorent Client: A pretty popular one, but it does have some drawbacks on certain trackers.
- VuZe: A popular bittorrent software based in JAVA.
PEER TO PEER SHARING:
- DC++: Direct Connect is probably one of the most popular P2P platforms around.
- LinuxDC++: If you are on a Linux distro, I’ve found this is the best DC++ client to use. (EDIT 2022.11.24: Sadly LinuxDC++ is not maintained anymore so there are no updates for this software. There are other packages that you can use for Linux, but I found so far that using the original DC++ software with Wine has worked the best.)
- SoulSeek: Like DC++ SoulSeek has been around for quite some time.
- Shareaza: Another P2P that has been around the block once or twice.
- eMule: Been around for many years.
LIST MAKING UTILITIES:
- LibreOffice: Used to be called OpenOffice. LibreOffice can be used to open ANY MS file such as xls, xlsx, doc & docx as well as you can use it to create your lists. It’s completely FREE OF CHARGE. Ditch Microsoft and get a free alternative that works great!
- VisualStudioCode: If you are handy with HTML and you are creating your own website, VS Code comes in handy & it’s completely free! There are also versions for MAC & Linux!
- FileListCreator: This is a great, quick way to make a list from the shows on your hard drive whether its internal or external!
FILE SHARE SITES:
- MEGA: This is a pretty popular one, but some people do have issues with it and it can be slow at times.
- WeTransfer: This site allows an upload and it automatically sends a link to the person you specify through an email address. The free upload has a max limit of 2GB.
- FileMail: This page is like WeTransfer where you indicate the email address.
- SwissTransfer: Just like Wetransfer & FileMail, SwissTransfer allows for large file uploads. You can send up to 50GB AND choose to keep the files up for 30 days!
- Google Drive: Using your personal Google account you can upload and share files here.
- RapidGator: To send you will need a free account.
- FileFactory: Just like previous pages you will need to use and email address.
- MediaFire: An oldie but goody. Great download speeds!
AWESOME REFERENCE SITES:
- Setlist.fm: For tons of setlists of any show you can think of. Keep in mind that Setlist.fm is based on the actual songs played and not any recorded bootleg shows.
Wrapping It Up!
There are numerous tools that you can probably find online to use for your trades. Just do your research to find what best suits you & your collection. If you have found great bootleg trading tools speak your mind! Add a comment below!
