No, account works fine and it can be "Free". I've used a free account. I wouldn't recommend using a paid account for this, since you can have problems with ToS.

You get the ARL by checking "Storage" --> "Cookies" --> "Search: arl" (F12 for Developer Mode, or equivalent on Android). The string that comes up should be pasted in settings and saved. Then you can access any album and download it.

Edit: you can only play 30 seconds of any track on Free, but when you download the albums they'll come complete