Today we have updated Sownloader Web with various improvements in server stability. Some of you may have noticed that Sownloader does not work all the time. This has todo with DNS caching issues when the domain grabbing server restarts every day.
Our server needs some time to update the DNS addresses that are already in the cache. Depending on the time of the restart, this can take up to several hours. With today’s update, we read the DNS records directly via API, so we are no longer dependent on the DNS server. This should drastically reduce downtime.
The Sownloader website was updated today to improve it even further. We have updated all core files to the latest version of PHP 8. In addtion we fixed some minor issues which led to issues with our downloading software.
Moreover we have added another error message which gets displayed when a performance was found but has not been rendered by Smule yet. Every performance needs to be rendered first before it can be downloaded. The implemented error message holds a link to the performance with exact instructions what the user needs to do, to download the song.
In out last blog post, we have shared with you a sneak peak about the upcoming Sownloader Undelete for Windows 10. If you haven’t read this post yet, you can do it right here: https://sownloader.com/news/2020/12/12/sneak-peak-of-sownloader-undelete/
As some of you probably know, Sownloader hasn’t been a web application since the beginning. Originally, Sownloader appeared in 2014 as a native app for Windows. This version has got many new features over the years, like converting to MP3 and writing meta data. The last major update for this version was released on the 3rd September 2019. Since that day only minor bugfix updates have been released.
This will change in near future. I’ve been working on an all new version – Sownloader 9.
What is changing in Sownloader 9?
There a many major difference between Sownloader 8 and 9. The biggest one is the all new Metro theme which fits perfectly into Windows 10. Here is a first look at the new user interface.
With this update we are dropping the support for Windows 7. The reason for this is quite simple. Sownloader has been rewritten in .NET 5 which is not available for Windows 7 anymore. Since the 14th January 2020, Windows 7 does not get any security updates from Microsoft anymore. If you still running Windows 7, you should update to Windows 10 as soon as possible.
Sownloader Undelete will be integrated in this new version. We are going to add the Sownloader Profile Downloader in the future as well.
With Sownloader 9 we are replacing the old Firefox browser with the latest version of Microsoft Edge running on Chromium. It is much faster than the old version of Firefox, Sownloader is currently using.
In todays blog post I want to give you a sneak peak of the upcoming Sownloader Undelete. As some of you might know, deleted performances are not deleted directly. They are restoreable for a limited time until they actually get deleted.
A few months ago we hosted a service on Sownloader.com which let the user restore those songs. Because of its popularity we had to disable this service for an unknown period of time. The major problem with this service is that it generates a lot of requests to the official Smule server. When our server sends a lot of request within a short period of time to the official Smule servers then we get blocked by their spam protection and Sownloader won’t work for all of our users.
To wipe out this problem I’ve started working on a brand new tool called Sownloader Undelete. It will be far more powerful than our original undelete service.
Which features will be supported?
Audio and video recover for Sing! Karaoke, Magic Piano, Guitar, and Autorap
Automatically rendering of non rendered Smule performances
Meta data support, such as artist, cover art, etc.
Auto download all performances as either video, audio, or both
Preview the performances
Which features won’t be supported?
Does not run on Mac, Android, iOS, or Linux. It only runs on Windows 10
MP3 converting (might be added with an update later)
How can I influence the development?
I’m still not sure about a naming convention for the downloaded songs. What kind of information do you need in the filename? Please feel free to either write a comment under this post or send an email to support@sownloader.com with your naming requirements.
How does it look?
Here is a screenshort from early development. It might change in the final version.
Today’s update post goes a bit deeper into the technical direction. A big change for our service is imminent. Since the Sownloader 2014 was released as a webapp, we have constantly added new features to the service. But there was always a problem until now. Due to our server provider we were forced to build the service based on PHP. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I program predominantly in .NET and therefore some functions take much longer than I originally planned.
Thanks to your numerous donations I have rented a new server which allows me to develop in my familiar environment with ASP.NET Core. This server has already been rented for 1 year and Sownloader will move to it as soon as I have converted the current version to ASP.NET.
What are the advantages for you?
First of all, new features can now be programmed much faster. In the first step the following changes to Sownloader are planned:
implementation of a progress indicator for the conversion to MP3
the profile downloader is drastically improved More about this in a later blog post (the changes will blow your mind)
implementation of Sownloader Undelete. This service can restore deleted recordings from Smule after a certain period of time.
More information will follow at the end of November. But I give the programmers among you a final tip.
today I have some exciting news to share with all of you.
Surely you have already noticed that Smule has deleted many recordings within the last days due to copyright violations. Most probably many of you will now save their songs with Sownloader. Depending on how long you have been a part of the Smule community, you may have collected several 100 recordings.
If you want to download them with Sownloader, you have to download each of them individually. This will soon be a thing of the past! I am happy to announce that Sownloader will get a new feature which will make it possible to download all recordings from one profile. You can individually select the songs by app and directly download them with Sownloader.
The following videos show a techdemo from the development, how I load the data of 206 songs with Sownloader.
Sownloader Profile Downloader – Tech Demo
Tech Demo 2
By now I can’t say when the feature will be available, but I will keep you informed.
In today’s blog post I would like to talk about minor improvements of Sownloader Web. SCWID has pointed out to me that Sownloader Web is unable to download your performance, when the performance name contains a # character. This issue has been fixed with todays patch.
Moreover, I implemented more security features to Sownloader Web. Those are necessary to prevent other sites from using our downloader Software as their own creation.
That’s all for todays update post. Keep an eye out for an upcoming update of Sownloader Windows.
Last week I already gave you an outlook on upcoming features in 2020. If you haven’t read the blog entry yet, you can catch up on it right here.
Today I uploaded a big update to Sownloader.com. It contains many improvements and bugfixes. The most important change is the design of Sownloader Web. This has been greatly improved to create a better overview.
Further changes:
MP3 Downloads are now available for mobile devices
MP4 and M4a downloads are available on mobile devices without any third-party software
Added 404 Page
Changed the design of the MarvinKleinMusic Favourites page
MarvinKleinMusic Favourites can now be sorted by category
“About Us” has been revised and is now called “About Me”
“Changelog” renamed to “Updates”
Sownloader updates are now displayed as timeline
Footer now contains two new buttons “Get Help” and “Report Bug
Removed Twitter widget from the footer
Help has been renamed to FAQ and is now accessibile in the footer
Display of the FAQ slightly adapted
Fixed an error when capturing a download from Sownloader for Windows
Fixed an error in the calculation of the display in the statistics, which caused 0 values to be displayed at the beginning of the month
Since this is a relatively large update, I would ask you to contact me by e-mail in case of problems.
First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
In this blog post I want to give you an update about all donations we have received from you. In my opinion, it is your right to know how much money we have collected and what we have used it for.
In total we received 150,74$ from 12 different people. Thanks to all of you who donated throughout the last 2 months. This means a lot for me. Without you I would not be able to continue this project. I know that there are alternatives for Sownloader. However, in my opinion, these are not up to Sownloader’s standards. Many of them have so much advertising that the download button is completely hidden. Others are too difficult to use. Last but not least, MP3 downloads are not yet available at any other service.
I have deposited enough money to pay the server for the next 3 years. Furthermore I have extended services which are required for this project as well, such as the domain name.
What’s next in 2020?
Now I want to talk a little bit about what is coming in 2020. As many of you know, we launched MP3 downloads in Sownloader Web back in August 2019. Since the lauch we registered over 50,000 MP3 downloads on our website.
I know that the MP3 downloads are not perfect yet. For example, there is no indication of the current progress of the conversion yet. So this is the first construction site for 2020. Next I would like to further simplify the layout of the start page. Also a revision of the blog is still pending. I would like to get away from WordPress and implement a small solution myself to keep you up to date. This would reduce the administrative effort again, because the blog has to be maintained regularly.
Unfortunately I don’t have as much time this year as before due to final exams. Therefore I think that I will not be able to cope with these things myself this year.
What about Sownloader for Windows?
As some of you might know, there is native application for Windows 7 or later. The last update for this one was publish back in March 2019. Perhaps you are wondering what has happend to this version. The answer is simple. I don’t know what else I could add to improve the version. It works as it should. If you have any feedback about missing features or bugs then do not hesitate to contact me via email (support@sownloader.com).
I will say a good night to you and wish you all the best for 2020.
as some of you might have noticed, our website is currently unavailable. In this blog post, I want to give you an update about the current situation and explain why we are offline.
On friday, various website owners have contacted our provider to inform them about an ongoing brute-force attack. Hackers use brute-force as a method to login into other accounts by trying out every possible password combination. As a result, our provider has temporarily disabled requests to external websites for accounts with many external requests. Unfortunately, we’re also affected by this. This block remains in place until the situation has been examined by our provider.
Without external requests, Sownloader is unable to detect the download URL for your Smule performances. As a workaround, you can still use our standalone software for Windows. You can download it for free here.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Sownloader did not participate in any such attacks, let alone carried out an attack. We are only affected as a precautionary measure, as we perform thousands of external requests every day.
It might take a few days until our web service will be available again. I expect a solution for this issue on monday or tuesday. Thank you very much for your patience and support.
