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How to Use Google to Find MP3s
A while back, I discussed finding different file types with Google. That post never touched on how to find MP3 files with Google, since it isn’t a file type that Google officially supports.
A few weeks ago a reader wrote the following comment:
Can I use advanced search to find mp3 files? I don’t see the option. Is there any easier way, to find mp3’s?
After some research, I believe that I have found the syntax that most reliably finds MP3 files using Google.
How to Find MP3s Using Google
First of all, if you don’t care about the long syntax, and just want to find MP3 files, head on over to Simple Search: MP3 Finder, which is also accessible from the main menu under “Simple Search.”
Here is what you need to type in the Google Search box:
[name of artist/band and/or song] intitle:”index of” “parent directory” “last modified” “size” “description” [snd] (mp3|aac|wma) -inurl:(htm|html|lyrics|aspx|jsp|index|shtml|php|mp3s|mp3|cf) -gallery -intitle:”last modified”
It’s long and complicated, but it does the best at finding the files that you’re after.
The Breakdown of What It All Does
- intitle:”index of” - This tells Google to find the phrase “index of” in the web page’s title. Since the best way to find MP3 files is to just search for pages that simply list files in a directory, “index of” works because all directory listings contain that phrase in their title.
- “parent directory” “last modified” “size” “description” - This part makes sure that the page contains these words/phrases exactly as written. This makes sure that we are getting a directory listing. You can see a sample one in the screen capture below.
- [snd] - This is the alternate text that displays when there is a sound icon on the webpage, which there should be when we are dealing with a directory listing of audio files. In the screen capture above, you will notice a little image icon next to the image file. Below, I have outlined the SND icon in a sample directory of audio files:
- (mp3|aac|wma) - This tells Google to search for the words mp3, aac OR wma. As an alternative, I could have written mp3 OR aac OR wma, but this is more compact and easy to understand when dealing with such a large search syntax.
- -inurl:(htm|html|lyrics|aspx|jsp|index|shtml|php|mp3s|mp3|cf) -gallery -intitle:”last modified” - This last section is necessary because many webpages have caught on to how certain users search for MP3s on Google and have created fake pages that imitate directory listings. This string hopefully eliminates them by weeding out URLs that contain different buzz words.
If you have any questions about finding MP3 files with Google, just post them below!
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