yt-dlp-yandex-music-plugin

A yt-dlp plugin (plus standalone tools and research notes) for downloading from Yandex Music (music.yandex.ru) in 2026.

The built-in yt-dlp Yandex Music extractor is broken upstream: it calls the retired handlers/*.jsx endpoints and crashes. This project reverse-engineered the current web API and replaces the extractor.

Just want to download something? → QUICKSTART.md (3 steps: install, cookies, one command.)

What it does

• Fixes https://music.yandex.ru/album/<albumId>/track/<trackId> (shadows the broken built-in YandexMusicTrackIE).
• Adds support for shared playlists: https://music.yandex.ru/playlists/<uuid> (not supported by upstream).
• Downloads the best available audio: FLAC where the server offers it, otherwise MP3 320 kbps (falls back to MP3 192). Unencrypted raw transport — no client-side decryption.
• Requires a logged-in (paid) account: pass your cookies with --cookies (Netscape format, tab-separated, must include the .yandex.ru Session_id cookie). Without a valid session the API silently returns smart_preview streams — downloads "succeed" but files are ~13–30 s. See the troubleshooting table in QUICKSTART.md.

Install

Option A — PyPI (recommended):

pip install yt-dlp-yandex-music

If your yt-dlp lives in a pipx install, the plugin must go into the same environment:

pipx inject yt-dlp yt-dlp-yandex-music

Option B — from this repo:

pip install --user .        # or: pipx/uv tool install .

Option C — drop-in (no build, no pip):

mkdir -p ~/.config/yt-dlp/plugins/yandex-music-v2/yt_dlp_plugins/extractor
cp yt_dlp_plugins/extractor/yandex_music_v2.py \
   ~/.config/yt-dlp/plugins/yandex-music-v2/yt_dlp_plugins/extractor/

All options install into a location yt-dlp scans for the yt_dlp_plugins.extractor namespace automatically.

Verify (both lines should say OK):

python3 tools/check_install.py
# OK:  yandexmusic:track      -> plugin (shadows broken built-in)
# OK:  yandexmusicv2:playlist -> plugin (shared playlists)

Note: yt-dlp --list-extractors won't show the plugin — yt-dlp handles that flag before loading plugins.

Usage

# cookies: Netscape-format file exported from a logged-in browser session
yt-dlp --cookies ~/Music/NFSMW/.cookies.txt \
  -o '%(playlist_index)02d - %(artist)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' \
  'https://music.yandex.ru/playlists/<uuid>'

# single track
yt-dlp --cookies cookies.txt \
  'https://music.yandex.ru/album/39688866/track/143540328'

# pin the request-signing key (normally not needed — the plugin
# refreshes it automatically when Yandex rotates it)
yt-dlp --cookies cookies.txt \
  --extractor-args "yandexmusicv2:hmac_key=7tvSmFbyf5hJnIHhCimDDD" \
  'https://music.yandex.ru/album/39688866/track/143540328'

Filenames containing non-ASCII (e.g. Cyrillic artist names) are not transliterated by yt-dlp — post-process if you need ASCII-only names (tools/standalone_download.py does it for you).

Standalone downloader (no yt-dlp)

python3 tools/standalone_download.py \
  --cookies cookies.txt \
  --playlist 'https://music.yandex.ru/playlists/<uuid>' \
  --out ~/Music/NFSMW \
  --m3u /path/to/Playlist.m3u \
  --wine-prefix 'Z:\home\lw\Music'

Pure stdlib; writes NN - Artist - Title.ext files (ASCII-sanitized) and optionally an M3U (plain paths or Wine Z:\-style paths).

If signatures start failing (403 not-allowed)

The HMAC key is hardcoded in the web frontend bundle and only changes when Yandex ships a new frontend. The plugin handles a rotation automatically: on a rejected signature it re-downloads the frontend, extracts the new key, caches it in the yt-dlp cache dir, and retries.

If the automatic refresh cannot find the key (frontend layout changed again), extract it manually and pin it with an extractor-arg:

python3 tools/extract_secret_key.py            # prints the current key
yt-dlp --extractor-args "yandexmusicv2:hmac_key=<key>" ...

The hmac_key extractor-arg also works for testing/overrides and takes priority over the auto-refresh. Accepted names: yandexmusicv2, yandexmusic, yandexmusic:track, yandexmusicv2:playlist.

Versioning

CalVer, in the style of yt-dlp itself: YYYY.MM.DD (e.g. 2026.09.16), with optional suffixes:

• YYYY.MM.DD.N — same-day re-release (e.g. 2026.09.16.1)
• YYYY.MM.DDrcN — pre-release (e.g. 2026.09.16rc1)

The version is the git tag — releases are tagged and published by CI (.github/workflows/publish.yml), so there is no version field to bump by hand. PyPI versions are immutable: one tag = one release, and a broken release gets a new date, not a re-upload. Release notes live in GitHub Releases.

Publishing (maintainers)

1. Commit the changes to master.
2. Tag the commit with the CalVer version (no v prefix): git tag 2026.09.16 && git push origin 2026.09.16
3. On GitHub: Releases → Create a new release → pick the tag → write notes → Publish release. (Tick pre-release for rcN tags.)
4. The Publish to PyPI workflow builds sdist+wheel and uploads them via PyPI Trusted Publishing (OIDC — no API token in the repo).

One-time setup (do once, before the first release):

1. GitHub → repo Settings → Environments → New environment: pypi
2. PyPI → your account → Publishing → add a pending GitHub publisher: owner fgsfds1, repo yt-dlp-yandex-music-plugin, workflow publish.yml, environment pypi, project name yt-dlp-yandex-music. The project is created automatically on first publish (the name is not reserved until then).

If you ever move the repo or rename the workflow, re-register the publisher at PyPI → account → Publishing.

Tests

python3 tests/test_sign.py

Verifies the signing algorithm against signatures captured from live web app traffic (2026-08-17), including the codecs-without-commas gotcha.

CI runs these on every push/PR (.github/workflows/tests.yml), on Python 3.10–3.14, plus a packaging build check.

Layout

QUICKSTART.md                             3-step how-to (start here)
yt_dlp_plugins/extractor/yandex_music_v2.py   the plugin
tools/check_install.py                      verify the plugin is installed
tools/extract_secret_key.py                   re-extract the HMAC key
tools/standalone_download.py                  yt-dlp-free downloader + M3U
tests/test_sign.py                            sign-algorithm regression tests
research/api-notes.md                         full API + RE documentation
research/cdp/                                 CDP capture scripts (Node ≥ 22)

The one-paragraph summary of the RE

The web player signs GET api.music.yandex.ru/get-file-info requests with sign = base64(HMAC-SHA256(key, ts + trackId + quality + codecs.join("") + transport)).rstrip("="). The key is a static app secret hardcoded in the frontend bundle (7tvSmFbyf5hJnIHhCimDDD as of v4.1603.1, where it lives in a per-platform player.secretKey config object). The gotcha: codecs are joined without commas for signing (commas in the URL). With quality=lossless&codecs=flac,mp3&transports=raw the server returns unencrypted strm.yandex.net URLs (MP3 320 / FLAC) that download without cookies. Full details: research/api-notes.md.

Disclaimer

• Vibecoded: this plugin was written with heavy AI assistance ("vibecoded"). It works for its author, but the code is not audited, not reviewed, and not tested against every edge case. Use with appropriate skepticism.
• Use at your own risk — no ban guarantee: this plugin talks to Yandex Music's unofficial web API with your personal session cookies. Nothing here is endorsed by or affiliated with Yandex. The author cannot guarantee that using it will not lead to rate limits, CAPTCHAs, or (in the worst case) restrictions on your Yandex Music account. Keep request volumes reasonable, and if you value the account highly, think twice before hammering it.
• Personal use: this is for downloading content you are entitled to access (your own subscriptions, e.g. personal playlist archiving). Respect Yandex Music's Terms of Service and applicable law; the built-in extractor's own documentation already assumes cookie-based personal use.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.