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wedonnotcareHello! Given the fact that 8tracks recently announced that they will be closing down on December 31st, fans have been trying to save all the fandom playlists they can so they don't get lost when the website shuts down. Good news! There is a way to easily extract the information of all the playlists in a 8tracks tag. Here's a post explaining how to do it.
This post is meant to be a place where people who are extracting URLs from tags (of any fandom!) on 8tracks before the closing of the site can post their progress in a comment to avoid extracting the same tags multiple times. Not everyone extracting URLs will know about this post so it will be incomplete, this is just one attempt to avoid unnecessary duplicates. Anonymous commenting is enabled, so you don’t need an account to let us know your progress!
UPDATE:
Thanks to VidderKidder, we now have an excel spreadsheet that will archive the playlist info (note: the playlist text file will be in a json format, but using the spreadsheet is a super fast way to getting the metadata and the covers).
**********************
Download: http://bit.ly/8trackback
(you will need to have Macros enabled to run the spreadsheet)
https://powerspreadsheets.com/how-to-
Use the first sheet tab to paste your URLs and click the button to run.
What it will do:
*Extract relevant meta data from the playlist page and put it in your Excel Spreadsheet
*Download the JSON file with the playlist details to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
*Download the cover photo for each playlist to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
What you should do:
*Paste urls on the first column of the first sheet tab
*Create a folder on your desktop called 8tracks
*Click the button.
*When you are done and you want to run a new batch copy the info to the second tab
*Clear out the old urls and relevant info on the first tab and paste in the new urls and run again.
Here's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/4WlI4yGW-8M
If you have any questions you can contactmorgandawn at admin@vidders.net
This post is meant to be a place where people who are extracting URLs from tags (of any fandom!) on 8tracks before the closing of the site can post their progress in a comment to avoid extracting the same tags multiple times. Not everyone extracting URLs will know about this post so it will be incomplete, this is just one attempt to avoid unnecessary duplicates. Anonymous commenting is enabled, so you don’t need an account to let us know your progress!
UPDATE:
Thanks to VidderKidder, we now have an excel spreadsheet that will archive the playlist info (note: the playlist text file will be in a json format, but using the spreadsheet is a super fast way to getting the metadata and the covers).
**********************
Download: http://bit.ly/8trackback
(you will need to have Macros enabled to run the spreadsheet)
https://powerspreadsheets.com/how-to-
Use the first sheet tab to paste your URLs and click the button to run.
What it will do:
*Extract relevant meta data from the playlist page and put it in your Excel Spreadsheet
*Download the JSON file with the playlist details to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
*Download the cover photo for each playlist to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
What you should do:
*Paste urls on the first column of the first sheet tab
*Create a folder on your desktop called 8tracks
*Click the button.
*When you are done and you want to run a new batch copy the info to the second tab
*Clear out the old urls and relevant info on the first tab and paste in the new urls and run again.
Here's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/4WlI4yGW-8M
If you have any questions you can contact
morgandawn at admin@vidders.net
Tags whose URLs I've extracted as of 5:45 PM UTC
Date: 30/12/19 17:45 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30/12/19 17:56 (UTC)I asked archive team about this: "when we were working with the infinite scroll pages, we ran into a 1000 limit. It didn't matter whether we specified 1 per page or 10 or 20. Still was limited to 1000 results in total divided by however many pages"
As a result they dropped trying to archive by tags , instead they're running 3.5 million random numbers in the hopes of grabbing what they can . On the back end of 8tracks, the playlist data is not stored by URL, or by tag, but by unique numeric identifier.
Because of the volume that they have to run, the archive team will not be archiving the "look and feel (user profile icons). only basic metadata and the raw cover art
https://8tracks.com/mixes/6439105/tracks_for_international.jsonh
Supernatural pairings and fandom tags
Date: 30/12/19 18:06 (UTC)Supernatural pairings
destiel
deancas
wincest
sam/dean
dean/sam
the winchesters
winchesters
sabriel
Fandom
Supernatural
spn
no subject
Date: 30/12/19 18:23 (UTC)- christopher pike
- pavel chekov
- worf
- star trek discovery
- daforge
- jaylah
- leonard mccoy
no subject
Date: 30/12/19 18:33 (UTC)- Chakotay
- Chulu
- Christine Chapel
- Janice Rand
- Montgomery Scott
- Amanda Grayson
- Kathryn Janeway
- Tom Paris
- B'Elanna Torres
- Elim Garak
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 30/12/19 18:24 (UTC)Thanks to VidderKidder, we now have an excel spreadsheet that will archive the playlist info (note: the playlist text file will be in a json format, but using the spreadsheet is a super fast way to getting the metadata and the covers).
**********************
Download: http://bit.ly/8trackback
(you will need to have Macros enabled to run the spreadsheet)
https://powerspreadsheets.com/how-to-enable-macros-excel/
Use the first sheet tab to paste your URLs and click the button to run.
What it will do:
*Extract relevant meta data from the playlist page and put it in your Excel Spreadsheet
*Download the JSON file with the playlist details to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
*Download the cover photo for each playlist to a folder on your desktop (8tracks)
What you should do:
*Paste urls on the first column of the first sheet tab
Create a folder on your desktop called 8tracks
Click the button.
When you are done and you want to run a new batch copy the info to the second tab
Clear out the old urls and relevant info on the first tab and paste in the new urls and run again.
If you have any questions let me know.
Just reply to this email. My email is admin@vidders.net.
I have assisted on projects to backup tumblr, Yahoo Groups and now 8tracks.
I am the admin of vidders.net the largest streaming vidding network online.
You can share this sheet with anyone who would like to do the same thing you are about to do
Again if there are any questions just email.
no subject
Date: 30/12/19 19:00 (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Comments / column K
From:Re: Comments / column K
From:no subject
Date: 30/12/19 22:27 (UTC)-Arthur Pendragon
-Merthur
-BBC_Merlin
-inception
-arthur/eames
-one direction
-larry stylinson
-The Social Network
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30/12/19 23:57 (UTC)- Doki Doki Literature Club / ddlc
- Ava's Demon / avas demon
- Undertale (as much as possible considering there's >3000)
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 00:55 (UTC)Arrested Development
Transgender
I don't think I'll have time for anything else.
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:59 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31/12/19 01:48 (UTC)So far I've collected links for variations of
Dean/Benny
Dean/Lisa
Sam/Castiel
Bobby/Crowley
Sam/Jessica
+some tiny ships
Plus whatever characters I can think of
Also got about 2,300 out of 3,600 for Dean Winchester
+ Almost Human (fandom)
no subject
Date: 1/1/20 06:14 (UTC)I'd personally love to see Crowstiel, Crevin, and Calthazar saved as well if you know if you got those.
ETA 4PM 1/1: I'm noting my progress on smaller SPN tags in the comments below, of the above I haven't yet gotten to Lisa Braeden, anything with Castiel other than the "Team Free Will" tag, or anything with Jessica Moore. I pulled everything under Bobby Singer, Crowley+Supernatural, and Benny Lafitte/Benny+Supernatural, so I think that covered those you listed above.
Vid show Playlists
Date: 31/12/19 02:00 (UTC)Another Tip: Collections
Date: 31/12/19 02:02 (UTC)Ex:
https://8tracks.com/super_redhead/collections/a-big-star-wars-collection
https://8tracks.com/vaguelydownward/collections/star-trek
Collections are hard to find so if you come across any mention them here
Re: Another Tip: Collections
Date: 31/12/19 02:40 (UTC)Re: Another Tip: Collections
From:Re: Another Tip: Collections
From:Anime
Date: 31/12/19 03:57 (UTC)Re: Anime
Date: 2/1/20 09:18 (UTC)Aoi Hana
12 Kingdoms
Samurai 7
Kase-san series
Noein
Escaflowne
Haibane Renmei
Larger numbers of fanmixes, from which I've been grabbing just samples from atm. Feel free to contact me if you want to split any up:
Natsume Yuujinchou
Yuri on Ice
Mushi-shi
Princess Tutu
Re: Anime
From:no subject
Date: 31/12/19 04:28 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31/12/19 15:29 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 31/12/19 04:44 (UTC)- agent carter
- peggy carter
- rogue one
- feanorians
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:24 (UTC)- silmarillion
- the silmarillion
- elrond
- winterhawk
- stevebucky (chosen over 'stucky' because it squeaks under the limit with 996 songs)
- girl genius
- robin mckinley
- patricia briggs
- discworld
- gunnerkrigg court
- tolkienreadalong
I'll grab major lord of the rings characters tomorrow, I don't know whose tags will be too big.
(no subject)
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From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 15:54 (UTC) - ExpandVid show Playlists
From:Vid show Playlists
From:(no subject)
From:Vid show Playlists
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From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 17:28 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 31/12/19 05:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31/12/19 05:30 (UTC)- undertale
- chara / chara (undertale)
- sans
- frisk
- mettaton / mettaton ex
- genocide route
- pacifist route
- papyrus
- asriel dreemurr
- flowey
- undertale spoilers
(basically all the top tags)
so I think that covers most of it
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31/12/19 06:04 (UTC)-night in the woods-we know the devil
-wktd
-fallen london
-echo bazaar
-echobazaar
-sunless sea
(i'm thinking of getting more, but the computer i'm using for this is really slow so we'll see.)
-rick and mortyno subject
Date: 31/12/19 06:18 (UTC)Also did:
- Lucifer (FOX)
- Good Omens
- Sense8
But I'll have to find someone to grab the info because I can't run the macro
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 06:36 (UTC)- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 06:58 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 31/12/19 06:41 (UTC)Currently working on the Les Mis tag (it does have over 1000, so I'm missing some). Got everything in the Combeferre tag as a test run to make sure I was doing it right. I'll probably try to grab some Classics-related tags as well.
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:53 (UTC)(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 07:59 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 15:04 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 31/12/19 16:03 (UTC) - Expandno subject
Date: 31/12/19 07:54 (UTC)https://youtu.be/4WlI4yGW-8M
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 08:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31/12/19 09:39 (UTC)"black sails" is ran through with the macro! there are some small benefits to being a small fandom.
"enjoltaire" is ran through meanwhile
edited because of the noob questions, hah
no subject
Date: 31/12/19 13:55 (UTC)other stuff i ran through:
- valvert
- the terror
- dorian pavus
- phantom of the opera
- the vampire chronicles
- shakespeare
- fantastic beasts and where to find them
- barduil
- severus snape
- captive prince
- the witcher
(okay, two noob questions...why is the macro giving me error 500 on some playlists, is it just because 8tracks itself is giving me that page sometimes? i imagine they're facing quite a lot of traffic...re-running the macro fixes it usually, but i'm too slow as it is :d and i don't always notice
and i'm also experiencing the 0 byte json files thing -- i don't know if that is something that can be helped :( if i have time i'll just find them by id and download tracklists manually though, but i don't know how much time i have left.
my email didn't went through either, but i suppose i could be counted lucky for that since some of my questions were kinda stupid)
(no subject)
From:Vid show Playlists
From:Re: Vid show Playlists
From:no subject
Date: 31/12/19 14:10 (UTC)- fe* (where * is 1-15) (also fire emblem awakening)
- ryu ga gotoku (also yakuza, kiryu kazuma, goro majima, yakuza 0)
- the world ends with you (also twewy)
- noragami
- mdzs (also mo dao zu shi)
- kingdom hearts [whatever number it is]/4 days, chain of memories (roxas, ienzo, zexion, vexen)
- eragon
- time riders
- run lola run
- watership down
- bravely default
+ some random stuff I had in collections. There's a bit of steven unvierse and a bit of dragon age, some tolkien-related things, and some random other splatterings. Possibly inception? I didn't check it fully, just pulled the links when I was playing around.
Have also run them through the wayback machine using the email, just in case.
Also, mostly with the noragmi ones but some others, I have noticed some of the files come out with a size of zero. Opening them as text reads them empty. The pictures still download and the spreadsheet list fills in, but the tracklists and all that are not in the files. I've tried rerunning them and no banana. The unifying link between them seems to be that they all contain non-european characters (odd fonts, love hearts, Cyrillic, japanese characters, etc).
no subject
Date: 1/1/20 08:59 (UTC)- rune factory (also rune factory 4, rf4)
- harvest moon
- discworld
- earthsea
(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 1/1/20 10:49 (UTC) - ExpandRunning the Excel VBA Macro
Date: 31/12/19 17:00 (UTC)1) Won't work well with Mac versions of Excel.
2) Works better with the playlists links. What do I mean? There are different kind of playlist links. Version 2 got me results while version 1 returned "Not found"
Version 1 - https://8tracks.com/talathamanya/we-move-lightly#smart_id=tags:clintasha&play=1
Version 2 - https://8tracks.com/talathamanya/we-move-lightly
Vid show Playlists
Date: 31/12/19 17:12 (UTC)Re: Running the Excel VBA Macro
From:no subject
Date: 31/12/19 17:23 (UTC)Ones I need help with (warning most are large and will take hours to run on a good machine)
*Homestuck (small)
*
LOTR (3ooo groups, ready to go)*
Marvel (11,000 groups ready to go)*random set of 'Goofy" - 200 multiple fandoms (small)
*Star Wars 2500 ready to go
*Good Omens (pending)
*Sense8 (pending)
*Buffy (pending)
*Another set of random ones - we need more keywords and pairings for Firefly/Serenity because the search I used on this one pulled in a lot of non-fandom
*Roleplay (pending..don;t know the size but it will be large)
UPDATED 08:00 UTC 1/4/2020 | Various fandoms & coding progress
Date: 1/1/20 06:11 (UTC)If you are ready to submit data, please email 8tracksbackup AT gmail DOT com ASAP with the following, and we'll send you a Dropbox link:
1. The name you want us to call you
2. How to reach you (presumably the email you send it from, but you can also list AO3/dreamwidth/tumblr/twitter/etc)
3. What fandoms/tags you gathered info for
4. If you backed up URLs and still need help running the macro
5. If you ran the macro successfully and confirmed you were not missing data (0kb text files, missing images, wordwrap issues, etc)
6. Whether you were signed into an account when pulling data, or if you think your results were limited to SFW playlists only
7. If you want us to reach to you to continue helping with this project (we will still contact with questions about your data set)
8. Any other questions you have
We will continue working out details once we've saved as many playlists as possible but data preservation is our priority for now.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
IF YOU ARE AN ADULT AND YOU ARE COMFORTABLE BACKING UP NSFW PLAYLISTS, PLEASE BE SURE YOU ARE SIGNED INTO AN ACCOUNT WITH "SAFE BROWSE" TURNED OFF, OR YOU MAY BE MISSING PLAYLISTS THAT ARE MARKED AS EXPLICIT AND NOT REALIZING IT!
PLEASE CONFIRM IF YOUR TEXT FILES (ANSI) ARE SHOWING UP AS 0KB - WE HAVE AN UPDATED SCRIPT YOU'LL NEED TO RERUN TO CAPTURE TEXT IN UNICODE!
YOU MAY BE MISSING IMAGES! CHECK IF YOU HAVE AN EVEN NUMBER OF FILES IN THE FOLDER!
New versions are forthcoming with tools to help recapture files affected by these errors!
ETA 0: I've got something like the first 1000 Homestuck ones so far. It's still running and it'll be a while, but we're in progress.
(I'm already in contact with
⛎🎉🎊 Cheers, Homestucks. 🎊🎉⛎
ETA 1 (11PM 12/31): Got the entire Homestuck list provided to me plus the dirkuu tag, caliborn tag, Mortior's playlists, Schellibie's playlists, a handful of others. Going to try for any additional cherub content, intermission fandom, etc.
ETA 2 (3AM 1/1): Grabbed cherubs, midnight crew, the felt, intermission, specialsari, bentsage. Calliope will take more sorting to separate out non-fandom before running.
Running overnight for six tabs provided to/from
Done
Intending to run tomorrow for Metalocalypse, Supernatural rarepairs.Other fandoms I'm familiar with are on my profile here on Dreamwidth, or on AO3 if anyone has a list ready to go and can't run the macro.For Firefox, the add-on Link Extractor has been useful for this project, and obviously the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine extension
Thank you to everyone who's helping with this. I'm pretty fed up with Q4 meaning the collapse of various fandom platforms
ETA 3 (10AM 1/1): Successfully ran macro with list provided to me for Firefly, Mad Max, Venom, Gossip Girl, Criminal Minds, Wonder Woman.
Ran macro for Metalocalypse and began running for smaller ships/non-Winchester non-Castiel characters for SPN as follows:
SUCCESS, needs some 0kb and missing image cleanup
Calthazar, Crowstiel, Crevin (none) Kevin Tran, Linda Tran (none), Mama Tran (none), Charlie Bradbury, Andy Gallagher, Bobby Singer, Jody Mills, Donna Hanscum (overlaps with Jody Mills), Claire Novak, Rowena MacLeod, Rowena, Jack Kline, Jack+Supernatural, Kelly Kline (none), Ellen Harvelle, Jo Harvelle, Ash+Supernatural, Benny+Supernatural, Bela Talbot, Gordon Walker, Azazel+Supernatural, Meg Masters, Megstiel, Ruby+Supernatural, Anna Milton, Abaddon+Supernatural, Balthazar+Supernatural, Crowley+Supernatural, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Adam MilliganETA 4 (4PM 1/1): Threw together a spreadsheet to help automatically clean up URL lists (HTTP>HTTPS, filtering to &play, removing text past # as a delimiter, quickly copying and then clearing text). Still potentially buggy but if I can get it stable I can share.
Working with
-
0kb ANSI vs Unicode issue in progressfixed, version 4 coming soon- Working on updates to macros including automatic link formatting
-
Images missing due to script seeking PNGs; being expanded to other file formatsfixed, version 4 coming soon- extract list of IDs from windows folder, then run those IDs to download missing json text (to quickly re-run Japanese/Cyrillic/etc character issues)
LIST GATHERED BY ME, MACRO TO BE RUN BY ME:
Galerians
Heavy Rain
Homestuck: Calliope, cherubs
Homestuck: working with a friend to completely redo the dataset to grab as many as possible of 8778 playlists on 8tracks; we are going by character first for beta kids, alpha kids, beta trolls, alpha trolls, cherubs, ancestors, guardians, carapacians, intermission, sprites, etc.
Supernatural subsets (Becky Rosen, Chuck Shurley, Amara+Supernatural)
Final Fantasy 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,10-2,11,12, Tactics and various naming conventions thereof (e.g. Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy 9, FFIX, FF9)
RUNNING MACRO:
homestuck alpha trolls, ancestors, guardians, carapacians, sprites
LIST GATHERED BY ME, MACRO ALREADY RUN BY ME, MAY NEED 0KB TEXT/MISSING IMAGE CLEANUP:
Ace Attorney (977)
Homestuck: Caliborn, dirkuu, the felt, midnight crew, intermission, various others (156+)
Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid/MGS (351)
Metalocalypse (106)
Supernatural: "Team Free Will" (195)
Xenogears & Xenosaga (39, definitely needs missing text cleanup, missing images handled)
Silent Hill (329)
South Park by popular, 988 of 1,215 (exceeds 1000 limit, will try by trending/newest and remove duplicates if time permits)
Supernatural: various characters/rarepairs (many listed above)
Supernatural: Sastiel (77)
Mass Effect (1329/1819 playlists, missing 490)
Narnia/Chronicles of Narnia (~350)
LIST GATHERED BY OTHERS, MACRO ALREADY RUN BY ME, MAY NEED 0KB TEXT/MISSING IMAGE CLEANUP:
Homestuck (3078+ out of 8778, still working on it)
6 TABS (1831 rows) for:
Criminal Minds ((328)
Firefly (157)
Gossip Girl (624)
Mad Max (488)
Wonder Woman (192)
Venom (42)
JSONs so far
Date: 31/12/19 19:09 (UTC)I have done:
-xena warrior princess
-femslash
-supercorp
-supergirl
-eurovision
And I'm trying to get *everything* from the doctor who tag. I got everything that wasn't tagged with a distinct tag, and have done these <1000s: doctor x rose, romana, romana x doctor, academy era, mickey smith, vastra/jenny, sally sparrow .torchwood, trock, osgood, classic who, faction paradox, big finish, doctor who eu . koschei .trock .companions .the rani . cybermen . charley pollard . dw . the companions the ponds .rory williams . gallifrey . bad wolf . tardis . clara x danny .twissy .time hunter .tentoo x rose . blake’s seven .
still got a lot more to do but, keeping at it... I hope someone gets some Glee and Harry Potter ones. I sadly only have time to do 1 big fandom ):
Re: JSONs so far
Date: 31/12/19 19:49 (UTC)I probably won't have time to do more than that.
Re: JSONs so far
From:Re: JSONs so far
From: