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In a pretty exciting turn, it seems YouTube Music has started rolling out offline downloads capability for its web app, marking a pretty significant change to web-based music streaming services. Across the board, music streaming services that offer a web-based, online player still require a Windows, Android or iOS app to leverage downloaded songs. Yet, here we are looking at what is hopefully the first of many users to start seeing this new feature appear in YouTube Music on the web.
DRM is largely to blame for the lack of downloadable content with streaming services in their web app counterparts, so the fact that this hurdle may finally be cleared is a story in and of itself (for a later time). I don’t have to tell you the benefit of having a library of music locally stored for those times with a solid connection can’t be found – like on an airplane for a 5-hour flight.
From the looks of the post on Reddit, soon we should begin seeing a new download button strategically placed between the “Save to library” option and the three-dot overflow menu at the top. Once a download is initiated, users will see a “Downloading…” indicator at the bottom-left corner of the screen, with completion of a download now showing a new “Downloads’ tab on the Library page. It looks to function as expected, provided you ever expected to be able to do this in a web browser. Those downloads look to remain available as long as the device connects to the internet at least once every 30 days, keeping things in line with the standard practices of most streaming services
I’d assume downloading songs will require a YouTube Premium subscription, aligning with the platform’s existing policy for mobile app downloads in the main YouTube app. However, the ability to download podcasts may end up as available to all users, which would be consistent with other platforms and help to ease the blow of Google Podcasts being shuttered recently.
The roll-out of offline downloads for the YouTube Music web app is a big deal for sure, but I’ll get far more excited when I see it start arriving for more users. A single person on Reddit is enough to get interested, but a real roll-out is when it will be time to truly get excited. For Chromebook users, specifically, this is a huge win when it arrives. Since our devices download the web version of YouTube Music automatically from the Play Store, downloaded music has been out of reach when needed for YouTube Music users. Soon, that won’t be the case.
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