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Key Takeaways
- YTMD is a third-party desktop app for YouTube Music available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- YTMD offers media key support, taskbar media controls, background music playing, and integrations with other tools and apps.
- Using YTMD solves browser tab issues and resource consumption, providing an enhanced music playback experience.
YouTube Music is one of the most popular music streaming services around. However, unlike its rival Spotify, YouTube doesn’t offer a dedicated desktop app. Thankfully, this third-party alternative is here to save the day.
What Is YTMD?
There are two “official” ways to access YouTube Music on your PC—you can either use the website or download a PWA (Progressive Web App).
We’ve already shown you how to install YouTube Music as a PWA. However, apart from running in a separate window, a PWA doesn’t give you the experience a dedicated app does.
This is where the YouTube Music Desktop (YTMD) app comes in. This third-party, open-source desktop app is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
In addition to supporting every feature you’d get on the YouTube Music website or the PWA, YTMD also offers media key support, taskbar media controls, background music playing, desktop notifications on track change, and even a handy mini player.
The app also has a ton of integrations, including Discord, Rainmeter, and Last.fm. These integrations aren’t possible with the PWA or website versions. You also get integration with the Elgato Stream Deck, OBS, Visual Studio Code, and access to a mobile control app.
The app is open-source, too, meaning you can check out the source code over at the YTMD GitHub repository any time to get a clear picture of what is going on behind the scenes.
Why Should You Use It?
Using YouTube Music or any music player in a browser can be a pain. If you’ve got multiple tabs open, you can easily lose the tab, and it often conflicts with local media controls or browser media controls referring to another tab.
There are also concerns over the resource consumption that a browser requires, even if you have just one tab open. Sure, a PWA solves these problems to some extent. However, it is also just a browser tab running in another window that your OS treats like an app.
Resource consumption aside, PWAs can’t integrate with external tools, and Windows often confuses it with media controls in the browser—something I find extremely annoying.
Using YTMD not only solves these problems, but its external integrations mean that I can add music widgets and visualizers to my Rainmeter skins, too. The Stream Deck integration is also great because it gives me separate track and volume controls for YouTube Music, which don’t affect what’s happening on my system.
The Visual Studio Code integration is also quite handy, as it lets me change music on the fly without having to leave my code editor.
Overall, the YTMD app provides capabilities that are well beyond the PWA and website. If a desktop app was the main sticking point for whether Spotify or YouTube Music is better, its time to reconsider and give YTMD a try.