Computer File Sharing: In Praise of SoulSeek

Scarcely more than a decade or so ago, the concept of downloading an entire album of music was quite laughable, yet alone building an entire virtual collection. Today file sharing software is easily available, often free, and loaded with pitfalls that few computer users tend to look for. Among these catches are adware, difficulty of use, expansive system requirements, and spyware. In light of these difficulties, many are choosing to install SoulSeek, an adware and spy-ware free peer-to-peer file sharing application that's easy to use and light on your computer.

The first issue at hand is adware. Defined by Wiktionary as "A software application that includes advertisements, which are displayed while the software is running," almost all computer users encounter adware on a regular basis, and many have already unwittingly installed such applications on their computers. Though adware is typically little more than annoying, usually displaying pop-up ads or banner advertisements, it may sometimes display the more menacing characteristics of its cousin, spyware: collecting personal information, tracking PC use, etc. SoulSeek is adware and spyware-free, for free, while other popular peer-to-peer applications such as LimeWire are not.

Another benefit of SoulSeek is that it does not require a lot of processing capability or RAM to run optimally. As far as system requirements are concerned, SoulSeek consumes less than one megabyte of disc space, very little RAM, and can be run on systems with Windows 95. On the contrary, LimeWire, Gnutella, and FastTrack each take up several megabytes of disc space, and some may only be run on newer operating systems such as Windows XP. These applications may also be technically limited in that users are only able to download single songs at a time, whereas on SoulSeek, an easy-to-use folder organization system promotes collecting whole albums. This may seem a trivial matter, but music lovers will appreciate this ability.

SoulSeek is an easy-to-use file sharing application free of cost, adware, and spyware. In addition to being the best download client for these features, SoulSeek promotes a sense of music community through its dozens of regional and genre-dedicated chat rooms, a feature not present on other peer-to-peer networks. For these features and more, SoulSeek is the best file-sharing application.