sdm-pycli 1.0.0

A fast, lightweight, and reliable CLI tool to download and sync Spotify playlists, albums, and tracks.

SDM - SDM Downloads Music

sdm is a fast, lightweight, and incredibly reliable CLI tool to download and sync Spotify Playlists, Albums, and Tracks directly to your local machine.

Why sdm?

Recently, Spotify restricted their Web API, requiring developers to have a Premium subscription, which broke popular open-source tools with 403 Forbidden errors.

sdm completely bypasses the official API restrictions. It cleverly uses public metadata scraping to extract precise track data (including cover art) and relies on yt-dlp to fetch the highest quality M4A audio available on YouTube. It then tags the files flawlessly.

Features

• No API Keys Required: Bypasses Spotify's Premium API requirements. Zero rate limits.
• Universal Support: Downloads Playlists, Albums, and Tracks from Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, and SoundCloud.
• Smart Syncing: The --sync flag mirrors your source folder perfectly, handling deletions cleanly.
• M3U Generator: Automatically creates a playable .m3u file to preserve the precise Spotify track order.
• Flawless Metadata: Embeds precise tags natively: Track, Artist, Cover Art, Track Number, Disc Number, Album Name, Album Artist, Genre, Release Year, and original Spotify URL.
• Advanced Extras: Built-in auto-lyrics embedding, LUFS audio normalization, and SponsorBlock trimming.

Installation

Since sdm is a standard Python package, installation is simple. Just run:

pip install sdm-pycli

Requirements: No additional software is required. sdm bundles everything it needs (including ffmpeg) during installation.

Usage

Once installed, the sdm command is available globally in your terminal.

Download

Download a playlist, album, or track to your current directory:

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID"

Custom Output Directory

Use the -o or --output flag to specify where the songs should be saved:

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/album/YOUR_ALBUM_ID" -o "./My Music"

Sync (Two-way mirroring)

If you add or remove songs from your Spotify playlist, run the same command with --sync. sdm will instantly download the new songs and delete any local songs that are no longer in the Spotify playlist.

Bonus: When downloading or syncing, sdm automatically generates a _playlist.m3u file. Double-clicking this in VLC, iTunes, or car stereos ensures your tracks play in the exact custom order they appear on Spotify!

sdm is smart—if you manually inject a track using the inject command (see below), it is marked as "protected" in your local .sync.json database and will never be deleted during a cleanup, even if it's not in the Spotify playlist anymore!

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID" -o "./My Playlist" --sync

Turbo Mode (Concurrent Workers)

Want it faster? Use -w or --workers to download up to 10 songs at the exact same time:

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID" -o "./My Playlist" -w 5

Advanced Features (Lyrics, Normalization, SponsorBlock)

sdm offers advanced flags to give you the ultimate listening experience:

• --lyrics: Automatically fetches perfectly synced lyrics from LRCLIB and embeds them natively into the .m4a file. Apple Music and mobile players will display scrolling lyrics effortlessly.
• --normalize: Applies EBU R128 (-14 LUFS) audio normalization via ffmpeg. This ensures all downloaded (and injected) tracks play at the exact same studio volume level, just like Spotify.
• --sponsor-block: Automatically removes 30-second skits, talking intros, and silence from YouTube Music Videos using the crowdsourced SponsorBlock API.
• --refresh-metadata (or --refresh): Forcefully re-tags your existing local files with the latest metadata, cover art, and lyrics without re-downloading the audio. Perfect for cleaning up libraries with missing tags.

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID" -o "./My Playlist" --lyrics --normalize --sponsor-block

Manual Injection (inject)

If you have a high-quality local file (e.g., a FLAC or a MP3) and want to weave it into your playlist with official metadata:

sdm inject "C:\Downloads\my_song.mp3" "https://open.spotify.com/track/..." -o "./My Playlist"

sdm will:

• Convert your file to the playlist-standard .m4a format automatically via the bundled ffmpeg.
• Fetch and embed the official Spotify metadata and high-res cover art.
• Auto-Indexing: It natively searches your local sync cache to automatically name the file with the correct track number based on your specific playlist order (e.g., 103 - Artist - Title.m4a). No more typing manual indexes!

Interactive DRM Fallback

When YouTube blocks an explicit track due to aggressive DRM/App-Bound Encryption, sdm doesn't just fail. At the end of your massive syncing run, it groups all the blocked tracks together and provides an interactive prompt allowing you to:

• Option A: Automatically fallback to SoundCloud (Quick but potentially lower quality bootlegs).
• Option B: Exit and use the sdm inject command to manually add your own high-quality files instead.

Downloading Explicit or Age-Restricted Songs

YouTube automatically blocks downloaders from accessing age-restricted content (like explicit songs). To bypass this, sdm allows you to authenticate using your browser's cookies.

Important Note for Chrome/Edge Users: Recent versions of Chrome and Edge use "App-Bound Encryption" which blocks external scripts from reading their cookies. If you try --cookies chrome, it will likely fail. Instead, please use one of the two reliable methods below:

Method 1: The Firefox Method (Recommended & Native) Firefox does not encrypt its database. If you use Firefox, simply log into YouTube and run:

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/track/EXPLICIT_SONG_ID" --cookies firefox

Method 2: The Text File Method (For Chrome / Edge / Brave) If you use Chrome or Edge, you can easily export a text file containing your cookies.

1. Install an open-source extension like "Get cookies.txt LOCALLY" on your browser.
2. Go to YouTube.com, click the extension, and export cookies.txt to your folder.
3. Pass the path to the text file using the cookies flag:

sdm download "https://open.spotify.com/track/EXPLICIT_SONG_ID" --cookies "C:\path\to\your\cookies.txt"