MySpace Music Player Hacked

Roy van Rijn writes to tell us about a little program called MySpace MP3 Gopher, with which you can download any song from MySpace as an MP3 even if it is marked to disable downloading. MySpace MP3 Gopher is a Windows program requiring no installation, and for those not on a Windows box the author offers an online version that anyone can run. It is hosted on his home computer so it is bound to get slashdotted rather quickly. All you need to grab a MySpace song is its "friendID," which is in every URL as a parameter. Tech-recipes has step-by-step instructions.

Uhm. Slashdotted?

"It is hosted on his home computer so it is bound to get slashdotted rather quickly."
Ok, who on slashdot uses myspace? Ok, now how many use it for music? Alright. Lemme recount.
I sense a lot (more) myspace bashing. Otherwise, it's a cool program.

Re:Uhm. Slashdotted?

Ok, who on slashdot uses myspace?

I bet you a lot of Slashdot does. As soon as you see the first chick with nice hooters who advertizes her myspace page, and you have to be a member to see the good pics.

Not that I actually did that... I just heard about a friend... errr .... guy I used to know who did that once.

Re:Uhm. Slashdotted?

I use bugmenot.com to login to MySpace for more pics.

Re:Uhm. Slashdotted?

I would have thought of that... if some of the blood in my brain hadn't been located in another organ.

Sweet, low quality MP3s!

But in all seriousness, this is going to bring the "web-rip" scene of trash on P2P networks to a whole new level.

Lol. Good point...

I actually work with a lot of MySpace artists with my site (I have a MS account, but I mean popexperiment). Ya, ripping off 96Kbps @ 22050Khz will really help you satisfy that need. Nothing like kicking back and taking in the hiss.

The only thing I really don't like about this is a lot of musicians and labels have come to depend on MS (say what you like, I work in a web-services company, I know Coldfusion and MySpaces scales poorly) and they might start pulling content. MS is actually the best resource out there right now for finding new work (since mp3.com really, which is shit now). Thats a simple fact. And artists can be very, very sketchy about 'lossing control' of their content. Another fact I have to contend with regularly (I run an internet radio channel/show on the previously mentioned site).

Lets hope they plug the hole quickly before knees start to jerk.

More interesting is the pending MySpace [mtv.com] downloads. Assuming they don't build it out themselves (which the article seems to suggest isn't the case) this could be great for a lot of independant/international artists and even better for the listeners. Because MS encoded files are great for a quick taste but garbage to really listen to.

Anyway, as usual, we'll see how the chips fall. The net is pretty orgainic.

I blame Universal Music

I have no doubt this project was funded, in whole or in part, by Universal Music group to support their BS crusade against MySpace and YouTube.

Re:It's so obvious

You've been able to do something similar to this for months. Thinking Universal wrote this on purpose to force MySpace into doing what they want isn't only naive, it's an indication that your tin foil hat is on far too tight.

Re:I blame Universal Music

Yeah. Cuz hackers NEVER take time out of their day to go after free music, and large, public web sites. They always spend their time going after the US military, and obsure Albanian porn sites.

Re:I blame Universal Music

Yeah. Cuz hackers NEVER take time out of their day to go after free music, and large, public web sites.

Look at it this way: it's a lot easier to download an album from ThePirateBay, than it is to comb through dozens of Myspace pages trying to cobble together all the songs from the album using this tool.

It's all about the laziest route to information... and this tool "ain't it". That fact, and its timeliness in relation to the Universal Music announcement makes it suspicious.

Re:I blame Universal Music

Look at it this way: hackers hack. That is what they do. Sure, there may be a different way of accomplishing the same thing. But hackers love to find a different way of doing something just to prove they can. No need for a big conspiracy and trilateral commission.

A different way

I've ripped music from MySpace pages, but I did it using a recording program like Total Recorder [highcriteria.com]. Basically it creates a virtual audio driver, records using that, then sends the audio to your regular driver. The only downside is that it does so in real-time, so you'd have to wait for the song to play.

Unfortunately MySpace music is only 96kpbs MP3s (AFAIK), so it's gonna be low quality, but lots of artists have MySpace exclusives or live songs only available there, which leaves it as the only choice.

In other news

it is rumored that the Americans in Guatanamo Bay in Cuba downloaded this program and used it as part of their "alternative interrogations" program. Quoth an anonymous source "Not even the most devout person in the world can withstand a constant barrage of myspace musical selections"

Why?

Why would anyone download a song off of Myspace? Honestly, i'd really like to know. Wouldn't it be easier to stick your head in a toilet and start screaming about your ex?

It doesn't work....

Am I missing something? It fails to grab any listings from any artists. Even the one used in the screenshot. Thats the web version and the desktop one.

I can see it coming...

1. Wait for 0-day news of product.
2. Create a trojan with adware.
3. Post a link to a "mirror" with the trojan. Bundling the original program is optional.
4. Sit back and earn 0.25 per install.

Caveat emptor.

Must already be patched by myspace

I just tried downloading off my buddies band page, just to see how/if it works, and nadda.

So.. move along, nothing to see here.

LR

Ok, explain...

...Why do we need a whole program for this? It seems like the kind of thing you could easily do manually. Or better, a Firefox extension.

Doesn't work

I tried it on four or five differnet artists, none worked.

Maybe MySpace devs fixed the hole

Makes no sense

If you are going to illegally download a song, why use backdoors like this, when they are all available on the p2p and bittorrent networks?

Mac-based Alternative

If you are using a Mac, Audio Hijack (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/) records live audio from any application (such as Safari) and saves it in whatever format is convenient for you. It's not as easy as this posted program since it is done in real time, but works with more than just MySpace.

Slashdot is always late

The "hack" worked when it was posted to digg about 2 days ago. Looks like it was fixed early this morning.

bunk

It doesn't work, and I'm glad. Giving alot of morons an easy way to get a song isn't that productive. If anyone really wanted the song, they'd record it or create a virtual audio driver that writes to a file as mentioned above, but morons are too lazy to do that.

What's the point?

The MySpace player encodes at a pretty crappy quality. If it's a major label act whose music you're trying to get, there are a million other places you could get it (and the rest of the album it's on) at a much higher quality.

That leave indie artists ... and if it's an indie act whose music you're tryin to get, why not buy their freakin' CD instead of trying to rip them off?

So what?

Why would anyone want to download music from MySpace? It sounds like ass. Seriously, what is it, 32kbps? I realize that some bands post music on MySpace before they release it (like Weird Al), but I think I'd rather chop off my ears with a rusty knife than listen to those songs on anything other than some crappy CompUSA speakers.

Hey, I can do this too!

Open Audacity.
Set recording to stereo mix.
Turn off or silence all other programs that might make a sound.
Hit record.
Open the myspace page with the music I want to "download".
Wait until it's finished.
Hit stop recording on Audacity.
Cut out the beginning and ending dead air.
Save file.

Duh.

ill-conceived hack

For some reason I thought this hack would be a mozilla plugin that would automatically disable the myspace player when visiting a myspace page. Unfortunately, this hack doesn't protect web users from annoying music, it causes them to copy the horrible audio to their local computers. What's the phone number for DCMA enforcement?!?

Seth

See i told you

everyone alredy now myspace was fucked everyone needs to go on hi5!!!

Gopher's not dead?

I thought gopher http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1436.txt [ietf.org] died a slow lingering death...

*WARNING*

This program also downloads a dl.exe from the web. Pretty sure that's a known worm. Don't believe me, open the executible in a hex editor and search for "dl.exe".

Re:The lack of Web 2.0 security.

Really, it's the fact that they let you listen to music but try to stop you downloading it — it's stupidity in itself. If your computer is receiving the audio data, you can save it. But then again, similar things can be said about DRM.

Re:This is just wrong

so if I held a tape recorder up to my speakers would that not be stealing? If you're putting it out there on the internet, there are a myriad of ways to turn it into an mp3. If you don't want people transcoding your music, maybe you shouldn't have it on myspace?

Re:This is just wrong

for the record, i dont visit myspace, i dont care about the music there, and i certainly won't use this program.

but really. if you don't want your music downloadable, don't put it online. there's nothing you can do that will prevent someone downloading it. in fact, to listen to it you first have to download it.

if you want people to be able to preview your music, supply them with 30 clips of it, not whole songs. because it WILL be downloaded /constantly amazed by the sheer cluelessness of media people

Re:The lack of Web 2.0 security.

This is just another example of Web 2.0 security, or the lack thereof.

I disagree. They are letting people download this music, but they are supposed to prevent them from saving the file.

This is just an attempt at DRM, which really has little to do with our traditional notion of "computer security".

"Security" usually means preventing unauthorized access of your computers... not preventing unauthorized access to data after you give it to someone.

Re:This is just wrong

It's good to know you're doing it for the music, and you aren't some sellout who just wants money.

If I want to make music my living, I have to be able to pay the bills. That's not going to happen if my music is free. Music takes time and money to create, just like any other art. Do you see painters giving all of their best paintings away for free? Perhaps the ones that are already wealthy.

Making music for a living is different than selling out. If I wasn't "doing it for the music", I'd find myself a job in a cubicle and "do it for the company". It's always for the music. But a guy's gotta make a living.

Re:Doesn't seem to work all the time

38904334 won't work, and neither will any of the 7 random music pages I just tried. Maybe its already patched?

Re:This is just wrong

If you wanted to keep your music to yourself, you wouldn't put it on the Internet at all.

Re:The lack of Web 2.0 security.

What does this have to do with Web 2.0? The MySpace music player is a flash application. Web 2.0 is just a term to describe the new generation of social web apps which team up various mature technologies in innovative new ways to deliever a richer user experiences compared to the previous generation of web applications.

Web 2.0 sites simply focus more on user and community interaction, collaboration, and content-contribution. They also marry pre-existing technologies (javascript, xml, serverside-scripting) to create more responsive interfaces. What is inherently flawed or insecure about it? Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, Gmail, YouTube, and Last.fm all seem to be doing fine. Even older sites like Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo Mail, and Slashdot have adopted Web 2.0 trends. Technologies naturally grow and adapt to fill new or changing needs and demands over time. Web 2.0 just represents the next evolutionary stage of web development as people realize the potential for richer web experiences by combining various key technologies.

It sounds like you're just afraid of a little change. Making up FUD to scare your managers out of keeping up with growing web trends just seems like a cop out to avoid learning new development techniques and adapting to the new business climate and changing consumer demands. Almost all large sites are gradually taking advantage of Web 2.0 development techniques. You can't fight progress forever.