Suggestions for Spotify Downloader + YouTube Music Links, and Updating FFmpeg & yt-dlp

[Substancelib]

I know the program is called Spotify Downloader, but I've been thinking about this for a while. It would be great if you could allow users to paste YouTube music links. Since the program already uses YTDLP, there are some tracks that aren't available on Spotify, and I can't use the program to download them. Enabling the ability to copy and paste links from YouTube Music would be really helpful.

Also, since the program already has a premium feature to download music in the best possible quality, it would be great to allow users to download music that's not available on Spotify as well.

As for metadata and titles, just use the minimum information that YouTube provides when a user pastes a YouTube Music link. The music should then download directly.

One more suggestion: Default Disable audio normalization when YouTube Premium is activated, and set the default audio quality to 256 kbps. Users can still choose another quality if they prefer.

One thing I always do is update ffmpeg.exe and yt-dlp.exe. For example, with ffmpeg, I update it to the latest version every month. I’ve noticed that this somewhat improves conversion speed for me, though I’m not sure if it’s just my system or if it actually makes a difference. I usually download the latest builds from gyan.dev for ffmpeg and from their GitHub page for yt-dlp.exe whenever there's an update. Even though I’m not entirely sure if this is improving anything on a larger scale, I just wanted to share this practice in case it helps someone else.

Maybe adding a way for the program to auto-update ffmpeg, ytdlp, or for you to update it with each new build, would be a good addition. I know this might sound a bit silly, but it could make things easier for users who regularly update these tools.

So far, my experience with the YouTube Premium feature to download the best quality possible has been good — without audio normalization, of course. I download everything at 256 kbps, and everything sounds great to me. Sure, there are some tracks that are recorded in poor quality, but there's nothing that can be done about that. So far, only the Edge cookies extraction works for me on Edge. When I try other browsers, I get an error saying I cannot download. But overall, everything is great.

It seems those are all the suggestions I have. Maybe adding an option to open the folder where the file was saved would be helpful — sometimes I get lazy and don't feel like opening the folder myself, haha. 😄 Other than that, I think the program is pretty solid. If you add these suggestions, it would be really complete.

[WilliamSchack]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I have thought about adding yt links support before but it would be a bit of work and require a bit of a re-brand so if I do end up doing it, it wont be soon I have some other things planned to implement but I will have a think over it

With the default settings, I will for sure make it so 256kb/s is the default when adding cookies, but I wont make audio normalization default to off. What I have learnt from app development is you have to advocate for the users who dont know much about the technical details so I will leave it on as its the same as spotify which is what people would expect, otherwise people would think the program has issues if some songs are louder/quieter than others

I think a better approach would just be to have a look into the normalization and see why it is compressing songs, I did a quick look over the command and nothing jumps out at me (its the same as setting the bitrate with an extra argument that offsets the volume to the target) but I will have to do some proper tests and look into some other options

About ffmpeg & yt-dlp I do update it every now and then but definitely not enough (I think the last time was mid January) so I will try to update it more often

I will also for sure also add auto opening the download folder as well, honestly not sure why I didnt think of it

In terms of implementing the features, I have been busy over the last few weeks (hence why I havent gotten around to fixing the cookies) but hopefully I should be free to work on it soon but im not sure exactly when.

[Substancelib]

Thanks for the detailed response! Totally understandable about the YouTube support makes sense that it would require more than just a quick tweak, especially with the rebranding aspect. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you’ve got planned in the meantime.

Also, fair point about the audio normalization I didn’t think of it that way, but yeah, I can see how keeping things consistent by default would help less technical users avoid confusion. Still curious to see what you'll find if you dig into why it compresses the audio, though definitely feels like something worth tweaking if possible.

Appreciate that you’re considering more frequent updates for ffmpeg & yt-dlp too, and it’s nice to hear about the folder auto-open feature! It’s a small touch, but definitely adds to the overall flow.

Hope things ease up for you soon. I'm looking forward to the updates whenever you get the time to work on them. I really appreciate all your hard work, and I apologize for all the many requests I’ve been making but thank you for everything!

[KRline]

One up for the youtube music link for download.
Reason: using the spotify link sometimes gives wrong download file from youtube. I had to install yt-dlp and ffmpeg on PC and then manual download the whole album from youtube just to get the correct file/track. Working from the command prompt is not the easiest way :)

Meanwhile my best wishes for X-mas and the New Year...