YouTube Music web app rolling out offline downloads [U]

Abner Li | Mar 29 2024 - 10:25 am PT

The YouTube Music website now supports offline downloads of songs and podcasts to match the mobile apps. This first emerged in February.

Update 3/29: This is more widely rolling out a month later. You’ll see a “New! Download music to listen offline” message next to the Library tab in the sidebar.

Setting up downloads on the web will count against your 10-device limit so keep that in mind. This should not be an issue for most users. In Settings > Downloads, you can clear everything you’ve saved.

Original 2/26: On the album/single page, you’ll get a familiar download button between “Save to library” and the three-dot overflow menu at the top. A “Downloading…” indicator will appear in the bottom-left corner to note progress.

Afterwards, you’ll get a new Downloads tab on the Library page. Filters let you browse by Playlists, Podcasts, Songs, and Albums. Google will note when there’s “No internet connection” with a banner below the Now Playing bar.

YouTube Music notes how “Downloads remain available as long as your device has an active internet connection at least once every 30 days.” This is a pretty standard restriction across streaming services.

This is a long time coming and will help address how YouTube Music doesn’t offer native desktop apps. On Chromebooks, you were able to download the YTM Android app as a workaround.

There is so far one report of web downloads rolling out to a YouTube Music user. It hasn’t appeared on the accounts/devices we’ve checked.

Downloading songs will presumably require a YouTube Premium subscription, but it remains to be seen whether anyone can download podcasts. The equivalent youtube.com feature supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera.