What to know
- YouTube Music web app for the desktop will soon allow downloading songs for offline playback.
- Look for the ‘Download’ icon next to the ‘Save to library’ option on song/album pages. Access your downloaded songs, playlists, albums, and podcasts from Library > Downloads.
- Downloaded songs will require you to connect to the internet at least once in 30 days.
Most streaming services allow downloading songs for offline listening, be it on the app or the desktop. But that hasn’t been the case for YouTube Music, particularly its web version. Fortunately, there’s finally some reason to rejoice there as well. YouTube Music appears to be rolling out the ability to download songs for desktop users. So if you’re plagued by a dodgy WiFi connection or must travel regularly, you don’t have to miss out on your tunes any longer.
YouTube Music lets you download songs for offline listening on the web app
For a long time, offline listening was only possible on the YouTube Music app for smartphones and all intelligent features, like smart downloads, were reserved for the app. Fortunately (and at last!), YouTube is extending support for downloading songs on its web app as well.
Although the rollout hasn’t been officially announced, at least one Reddit user was spotted the ‘Download’ option (next to the ‘Save to library’ option) on album pages. Clicking on it starts the download in the bottom left corner.
You’ll find all your downloaded songs under the ‘Downloads’ tab within the Library page. By the looks of it, it appears that YouTube Music will allow one to download Playlists, Podcasts, Songs, and Albums.
There’s also a ‘Download Settings’ option which will presumably configure things like audio quality, size, playback, and other things.
Although Google hasn’t officially announced offline downloads on YouTube Music’s web app, the downloads page mentions an important caveat: Downloads remain available as long as your device has an active internet connection at least once every 30 days.
Most users, however, shouldn’t find this to be much of an issue and would instead delight in the fact that this much-awaited feature is finally arriving. It is yet unclear whether this is going to be exclusive to YouTube Premium users, though one can speculate such features to come under the premium cover.
In any case, if you regularly listen to songs on the YouTube Music web app, and would benefit from offline playback, look out for the ‘Download’ button next to albums.
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