Keys that work anywhere
Media keys and global shortcuts reach the app whatever window you are in, so you can skip a track without stopping what you are doing.
What it adds
It runs music.youtube.com itself, so the player is the one you already know and your account works the way it does in a browser. The rest of this page is what the app puts around it.
Volume past 100%
Quiet uploads get a real boost. The part of the bar beyond 100% turns a warning colour, and a limiter holds the peaks down.
Discord rich presence
Shows the track with its artwork and a progress bar. Anyone who clicks the button opens that track at the point you are up to.
Last.fm scrobbling
Scrobbles while you listen, and you decide how much of a track has to play before it counts.
Ad blocking
Filter lists run over the player's own traffic, so requests to ad and tracking hosts never leave the app. It stays off until you turn it on.
What your phone is playing
While the desktop sits idle, the app follows the same account on your phone and shows that track in the player bar and on your Discord presence. Anything you play locally takes over again straight away.
Addons
Drop in a folder of CSS, page scripts or code and manage it from the settings window. Stylesheets reload as you edit them.
Remote control API
A local REST and WebSocket API on port 9863 that other apps can drive, once you authorize them.
Listen Along
Share what you are playing and your friends hear the same track at the same point in it. Skip a song and everyone follows.
Start a room and send the link, or let people join from the button on your Discord status. Anyone in the room can be handed the controls, so it does not have to be your queue all evening.
No app on their side is fine. The room link plays in a browser, artwork and all, with your audio streamed live.
It sends almost nothing to do it. The app publishes the moment a track started, and every other player works the position out from its own clock. Whole songs go by without a single message.
Louder than the slider allows
Some uploads are mastered so quietly that full volume still is not enough. The boost addon takes the slider past 100% and makes up the difference after the player, so it stacks with whatever the system is already doing.
Past the mark the bar changes colour, so you can see how far you have pushed it. A limiter sits behind the gain and catches the peaks, which is what keeps a boosted track loud instead of crackly. You pick the ceiling, and the limiter can be switched off.
Getting it
Install
Take the installer for your platform from the releases page. Windows builds keep themselves up to date.
Moving over
Settings and your sign-in from an existing YouTube Music Desktop App installation are picked up on first launch.
Something broken?
Open an issue on GitHub. Nightly builds keep debug logging on, which makes a report far easier to act on.