At my company we have a bunch of content that's only archived on SoundCloud. The main barrier I've had to backing up original uploads (only available through the web interface) is the terrible reliability of all the AJAX calls. Even with browser automation, it requires a LOT of error-handling just to navigate between resources successfully.

It seems that all these microservices[1] are there for the sake of blogging about using microservices[2] as there haven't been any new significant new features delivered in years, and the whole application now seems to be delivered through AJAX calls.

[1]: https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/building-products-at-... [2]: http://philcalcado.com/2015/09/08/how_we_ended_up_with_micro...

Have you tried using youtube-dl? It extracts the relevant data from Soundcloud's JSON API to perform the download:

https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

I know you mentioned originals are only accessible through the web interface, but I was not sure if you were aware of the JSON API.

Oh, I didn't know that. I ended up writing my own SoundcloudSync.py to keep a backup. Not very sophisticated but easy enough to run by hand whenever I upload something new.

I seem to be getting originals through the JSON interface - the MD5s of the downloaded m4as match the MD5 of the m4as I've got in Audioshare.

Yes I have all the originals on my music computer, plus do regular backups of all my music projects to my dedicated server.

I'm not afraid to loose what I created. 8 years ago, I lost 200 tracks. When I realized it, I decided consciously to make it a good experience, no grief at all.

I found it to be a formidable opportunity to start fresh, change my process, change my habits and create more!