ytbdl 0.0.5

Download music with yt-dlp and autotag it with beets

ytbdl: Music Downloader and Tagger

Combines the power of yt-dlp and beets to download music from the internet and automatically tag it.

This application is targeted at those who are already familiar with youtube-dl and beets. This app will work out of the box, but is great for those who want ultimate customization of the beets configuration used to tag the music, and to supply custom arguments to yt-dlp.

Note that this application only supports Python 3.6+.

Installation

Install the ytbdl tool with pip:

pip install ytbdl

Or, download or clone the ytbdl GitHub repository and install it with pip:

cd ytbdl
pip install -e .

Usage

Before using ytbdl for this first time, you need to create a configuration file. To do so, run:

ytbdl config create

Then, to download an album (by an artist) from a playlist at https://youtube.com/some_playlist:

ytbdl get 'Artist' 'Album' 'https://youtube.com/some_playlist'

You can control ytbdl with the config file, or using command line arguments.

Changing yt-dlp's Behaviour

You may change how yt-dlp behaves by specifying arguments on the command line, or by adding arguments to the configuration file. Click here for a list of yt-dlp options.

To pass options to yt-dlp from the command line, use the --ytdl-args option:

ytbdl get --ytdl-args "-f bestaudio[ext=m4a] --reject-title 'music mix 2021' --geo-bypass" ...

You can also specify arguments by editing the ytdl_args setting in the config file. To get the path to your config file, run ytbdl config path. The ytdl_args setting can be edited like so:

ytdl_args:
    - -f
    - bestaudio[ext=m4a]
    - --geo-bypass

Use ytdl_args in the config file for settings you want to use all the time. Use --ytdl-args on the command line for settings that may change between downloads.

Changing beets' Behaviour

You can modify beets' behaviour by editing ytbdl's config. ytbdl's config file is a beets config file, so edit it as you would a beets config file. Click here for a list of beets configuration options.

To edit ytbdl's config, set an editor in the config file. First, open the configuration to edit it:

# If you like vim!
vim $(ytbdl config path)

# If you're on Windows and like notepad!
notepad $(ytbdl config path)

Add an editor to the YAML configuration:

editor: vim

ytbdl will read this option and allow you to edit the configuration with that editor using the edit command:

ytbdl config edit

For example, maybe you want to add the zero plugin. Simply add it to the list of plugins:

plugins: # DO NOT REMOVE
    - fromdirname # DO NOT REMOVE
    - fromyoutubetitle # DO NOT REMOVE
    - fetchart
    - embedart
    - zero # <-- Just added!

# Options for zero
zero:
    fields: day month genre

Make sure not to remove any lines that say "DO NOT REMOVE" or you will encounter issues!

Configuration Notes

ytbdl exposes a configuration file that can be used to control the behaviour of beets during the auto-tag process. This configuration file is a beets config file, and "overwrites" your beets config when ytbdl calls beets. All of the configuration options you'd use with beets can be used in the ytbdl configuration. If you already have a beets config, it will not be modified, but the options specified in the ytbdl configuration have higher priority and will take precedence over any existing options.

The only two option that ytbdl exposes that aren't beets config options are the editor and ytdl_args options. For a list of beets' options, view the beets documentation.

For a list of yt-dlp options, view the yt-dlp documentation. Note that the --output and --extract-audio options are used by default (and can't be turned off). Any attempt at re-specifying these options will result in an error.

Updating yt-dlp

yt-dlp is frequently updated. If you find that downloads aren't working, try updating yt-dlp.

pip install --upgrade yt-dlp