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Rip Pandora to MP3s – PC or Mac OS X

If you’ve ever tried to Rip MP3s from Pandora you might have wondered if there was a better way; There is. Whether you are using a PC or Mac, the solution is here. I’ve provided download links and info about different software you can choose from. I will briefly cover Pandora’s Saver, Pandora’s Jar, PandoraJam, StreamRipperX, iTube Grabber and Orbit Downloader.  There are others, but these are what I would suggest using. Most of them can rip streaming audio/video from other sources as well, such as YouTube, Myspace, Deezer, Last.fm and have features such as scrobbling and more.

To make it easy for you here are the top recommendations for PC/Mac:
For a Windows PC, and for free – Pandora’s Saver will automatically rip, tag, add album art and categorize MP3s from Pandora all while you listen.
Download it here: Pandora’s Saver – Why Pandora’s Saver over Pandora’s Jar? I’ll explain further, read on..

For Mac OS X, you may want to consider a Windows Emulator to open up your options, however PandoraJam will rip, tag, insert album art and scrobble your Pandora tracks without your interaction. There are other free options, but for $15 this one does work nicely.   Download PandoraJam Here:
PandoraJam Download

Incidentally, a free Pandora account streams at 56k ACC, which can be ripped to a 128kbps file. This is not the worst, but it’s somewhat low quality. A paid account streams at 196kbps, which was the streaming quality when Pandora first started. A noticeable difference. If you rip a lot of music from Pandora, it’s worth subscribing for the extra quality in bitrate.

Other Programs that can Rip MP3s from Pandora and others such as YouTube, Myspace, Deezer, Last.fm:
[After writing a nice little review on each of these, I accidentally deleted the section. ]
It’s late, so I’m just gonna put the links and you can figure it out.. I’ll update this section later..

Mac: StreamRipperX Download link:
StreamRipperX
Mac: iTube Grabber Download link:
iTube Grabber
Windows: Orbit Downloader Download link:
Orbit Downloader

About Pandora’s Jar:
A few years ago, I started using Pandora’s Jar to rip MP3s from Pandora. It would rip the songs to mp3s, tag them, add the album art and categorize the music. Sure, you could use Orbit Downloader or another similar program, they work, but you’ld have to individually download the tracks, convert them from FLV/SWF to MP3 and tag the MP3 yourself. Then you’d need an FLV to MP3 Converter, such as the one by Freez, and you’d still have to tag the mp3′s.. (incidentally, I recommend AudioShell for tagging MP3s with their proper ID3/ID4 tags) Pandora’s Jar completely automated the process. Although a few versions of Pandora’s Jar will still work, frequently as Pandora makes changes, the program ‘breaks’. I’m running a version that still works, but I know that most people are having problems with it. I’ve found that Pandora Saver works reliably, though the interface isn’t as appealing or intuitive as Pandora’s Jar. The other downside to PandoraJar is it’s dependence on Firefox, additional plugins and for Mac users, the annoyance of having to hack/modify it’s files in order to make it work. That said, I will still say, that PandoraJar is still an excellent program to have, and you may still want to add it to your arsenal of MP3 collecting tools, but try the other utilities first.