YouTube & YouTube Music CLI Downloader

A modern, all-in-one Python tool to download audio (MP3, FLAC, M4A) and video (MP4) from YouTube and YouTube Music—with album art, smart file/folder naming, playlist support, lyrics saving, batch mode, and automatic metadata tagging.

Features

• Download individual videos/music or full playlists
• Extract audio as MP3, FLAC, or M4A (your choice)
• Save videos as MP4 (best available quality)
• Embed YouTube cover art as album art for audio files
• Write artist, album, title, year, genre, and track numbers into tags
• Save lyrics/video descriptions as text files alongside your music
• Batch/playlist downloading, clean UX, automatic retries
• Works on Windows, macOS, Linux

Installation

1. Install Python 3.8+

Download Python if you don't have it.

2. Install ffmpeg

Windows:

• Download ffmpeg build
• Unzip and add bin folder to PATH
• Verify: ffmpeg -version

macOS:

brew install ffmpeg

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg

3. Get the Script & Install Dependencies

git clone https://github.com/aswinop/yt-downloader.git
cd yt-downloader
pip install -r requirements.txt

Dependencies:

• rich – Beautiful CLI interface
• yt-dlp – YouTube download backend
• pyperclip – Clipboard detection
• requests – HTTP requests
• pillow – Image processing
• mutagen – Audio metadata editing

Usage

python downloader.py

Step-by-Step:

1. URL Input

   • Automatically detects YouTube links in clipboard
   • Or paste URL manually
   • Or load multiple URLs from text file

2. Format Selection

   • Audio: MP3, FLAC, or M4A
   • Video: MP4 (best quality)

3. Output Folder

   • Choose download location
   • Default: Downloads/ folder

4. Playlist Support

   • View all playlist entries
   • Select specific tracks (e.g., 1-3,5,7)

5. Download & Processing

   • Progress bars with ETA
   • Automatic retries on failure
   • Metadata embedding
   • Cover art extraction

6. Completion

   • Summary table of all downloads
   • Option to open download folder
   • Batch mode for multiple downloads

Sample Session

🎵 YouTube & YouTube Music Downloader 🎬
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
🎯 Smart organization    📁 Playlist support    🎨 Cover art embedding    
🏷️ Metadata tagging      📝 Lyrics saving       🔄 Batch processing       

🔗 Enter YouTube URL
• Paste a YouTube/YouTube Music URL
• Type 'file' to load from text file
• Type 'q' to quit

URL (): https://youtu.be/abc123def456

📥 Download Type
🎵 audio - Music (MP3, FLAC, M4A) with metadata & cover art
🎬 video - Video (MP4) with subtitles

Choose type [video/audio] (video): video

📁 Output Folder
Files will be saved in: Downloads
Change folder (Downloads): MyVideos

🎯 Ready to download: https://youtu.be/abc123def456

🚀 Start download? [y/n] (y): y

⠴ 🎬 Downloading 1/1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 100% 0:00:45
[download] Destination: MyVideos/Example Channel/Sample Video Title.f401.mp4
[download] Destination: MyVideos/Example Channel/Sample Video Title.f140.m4a
[Merger] Merging formats into "MyVideos/Example Channel/Sample Video Title.mp4"

🎉 Download Summary
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ File: MyVideos/Example Channel/Sample Video Title.mp4                       │                     
│ Type: Video                    Status: ✅ Success          Size: 124.5 MB  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

✅ Successfully downloaded 1 file(s)
📊 Total size: 124.5 MB

🔄 Download another batch? [y/n] (n): n
📂 Open download folder? [y/n] (y): y

🎊 All done! Happy watching! 🎬

Output Structure

Downloads/
├── Channel Name/
│   ├── Video Title.mp4
│   └── Video Title.txt (description)
└── Artist Name/
    └── Album Name/
        ├── 01 - Song Title.flac
        ├── 01 - Song Title.txt (lyrics)
        ├── 02 - Song Title.flac
        └── 02 - Song Title.txt (lyrics)

Features Details

Audio Files:

• Embedded cover art from YouTube thumbnails
• ID3 tags (MP3) or Vorbis comments (FLAC)
• Track numbering for playlists
• Lyrics/descriptions saved as text files

Video Files:

• Best available MP4 quality
• Embedded subtitles (English)
• SponsorBlock segments removed
• Clean filenames

Playlists:

• Selective track downloading
• Maintains playback order
• Album metadata from playlist

Troubleshooting

No album art?

• YouTube may not provide high-quality thumbnails for some content

ffmpeg not found?

• Ensure ffmpeg is in your PATH: ffmpeg -version

Installation issues?

• Try: pip install --upgrade pip
• Use virtual environment for clean installation

Download failures?

• Check internet connection
• Verify YouTube URL is accessible
• Some content may be region-restricted

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.