How to Get Thai Music as MP3s (outside or within Thailand)?

[henrik2000]

Hello, soon on my Thai vacation I would like to buy a lot of music ???????? by Thai artists. What I finally need are MP3 music files locally stored in my personal laptop, hopefully with 196+ kBit. The laptop will be with me in Thailand (incl. ext. hard disk, Cloud storage and ext. DVD player).

I was last in Thailand late 2015 (when "Labanoon" and "Sai Vassi Baw Tim Kann" were smash hits; YouTube at your own risk, toramaan maak-maak). I bought lots of "pleng Thai" (Thai music). Of my preferred recording artists, I'd like to get the albums from 2016 till today. I'm interested in general Thai artists like Carabao, Thongchai, Tai Orathai and many others, but also some morlam singers in Isaan-Lao language like Jintara or Siriporn. I can write them all into a list (in Roman script).

• Very best solution: Download and save legal MP3 in high quality straight onto my laptop hard-disk (not streaming)
• Second best solution: Buy safe MP3 CDs
• Third best solution: buy original Audio-CDs from online stores in Thailand (I'd convert them into MP3s in Thailand, then give away the discs)
• Not desired: buy original Audio-CDs in brick+mortar stores (see below)
• Only emergency: download torrents (don't know the offerings, quality, availability)
• NOT wanted: Spotify etc., Youtube audio downloads

Buying original CDs in store or online:

I already bought many original CDs in Thai stores. There are severe disadvantages:

In some place I was systematically lied at, when the CD covers contained Thai script only. I do speak a bit of Thai ("ao CD pleng Thai khrap!"), but can't read. Anyway the shop won't store all I need.

And you still have to manually convert the original Audio CDs into MP3, which is a drag and requires an external DVD drive.

• So best solution: Buy legal MP3s by download to my laptop hard disk (not streaming).
• Second best solution: Buy CDs online, preferrably full of MP3s, not Audio-CD-format.

Practicalities:

Is there a website that would deliver Thai music files or Thai audio CDs to me in the west? I can't read Thai though.

I will be in Thailand soon for several weeks on end and will spend 5-7 consecutive days in various locations, including far from the tourist track where Thais are very supportive (and happy about interest in their culture and might help with ordering). I know the postal addresses of my pre-booked places, but still haven't made a personal connection. I will have an international visa card from the west (that requires 3DS security on the store-end) and a Thai SIM card, but not a Thai-specific visa card.

 

So, how to best get Thai music MP3s for my hard-disk? Thanks ????????!

Edited October 13, 2022 by henrik2000

[Encid]

In most Thai provincial cities there are IT malls where there are vendors selling CD's containing popular Thai music in mp3 format.

These CD's usually sell for around 100 baht each and contain up to 100 songs.

These vendors do not accept credit cards, only cash.

If you can speak Thai, the vendors will search through their collections for what you want, and if they don't have it, they will ask one of the other vendors if they have it.

[henrik2000]

Thanks Encid, i had tried these vendors before. As mentioned above, I think they are ok when you don't have much music already and any music is wanted. In my experience, they

- tell wrong information to make a sale

- don't know anything about the CDs

Anyway it's important that they have a marker pen to write artitsts' names in English onto the CD covers, which usually only show Thai script, at least for luukthung.

[recom273]

Whats the issue with spotify? It has all the Thai music you could ever want?

 

No need to keep it locally, just stream - although there are ways of downloading the music.

 

https://www.tunefab.com/spotify/spotify-downloader.html

 

You could also listen to Spotify, find out the info and then go to a shop to avoid the <deleted> shoot, spotify would also suggest new artists for you.

 

Could you imagine going into HMV or Tower Records (I think they are all dead now) and asking for some English music, you will end up with a Tom Jones and Radiohead CD. 
 

Seems like you are living in the past 192 mp3s? Looking for pirated mp3 data discs in IT malls? Even my 50 year old builder has his phone attached to a speaker streaming his soundtrack for the days work.

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by recom273