yTube Music Player

The purpose of this integration is to provide easy access to media (Tracks/Playlists/Albums) of your YouTube Music premium subscription. The integration will let you login to your account and present you a GUI similar to the YouTube website, where you can select your playlist/album/.. but in HomeAssistant, actually in the "Media Browser" of HomeAssistant.

Once you've selected what you want to listen (e.g. a Playlist) it will grab the YouTube ID (everything has unique IDs at YouTube) decode it to a streaming URL and forward that URL to a HomeAssistant media_player of your choice, the "remote_player". This works great in combination with Google Chromecasts but other media_player might work as well, as long as they can stream from a URL (the Alexa integration can't do this to my knowledge).

Media_player in Homeassistant are not designed to play multiple tracks, so the playback on the remote_player will usually just stop, once it reaches the end of the track. We as user often don't want that. We want to listen to a complete album or a playlist with multiple tracks. Hence this integration will buffer the playlist and supervise the status of the remote_player. Once it detects that the playback stopped it will start the next track of the playback ... so this integration is kind of a DJ, always making sure that you're entertained. :)

This integration will show up in homeassistant as media_player + (optional) sensor. The media_player itself is required to offer the media_browser dialog, the sensor will provide extra information like the buffered playlist.

Features

• Browse through all you library tracks / artists / playlists showing names and covers of the media
• Either plays straight from the playlist or creates a radio based on the playlist
• Forwards the streaming data to any generic mediaplayer
• Keeps auto_playing as long as it is turned on
• On the fly change of the remove_player (playlist will stay the same, and position in track will be submitted to next player)

Support

If you like what I've done and you want to help: buy me a coffee/beer. Thanks!

Overview / Step - by - step guide

1. Initial setup: Videotutorial

• (required) install the component via HACS see Installation
• (required) configure the component via config flow, see details for the see Setup

you can now use it via the media browser and the default mediaplayer card, but please read on ...

2. Mini-media-player Videotutorial

• (highly recommended) install the mini-media-player and use see shortcut buttons

3. (optional for mpd / sonos) install the automation to fix see auto-advancing
4. (optional) install automations

if you find a bug, or want some extra informations

6. (debug) enable debug info

Installation via HACS

Please install this custom component via HACS.

Once you've installed HACS follow this Guide and install the yTube_music_player from the default HACS repository.

Setup

Go to Settings -> Devices -> "Add integration" -> "YouTube Music Player" If the integration didn't show up in the list please REFRESH the page

Very unfortunatly YouTube removed oAuth around November 2024 so we have to go basck to the old method to grab and convert a cookie from youTube Music. This is described in https://ytmusicapi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup.html#copy-authentication-headers and also below. It is highly recommended to use Google chrome for this step! The process frequenty leads to GitHub Ticket that can't be supported. Please pay a close look to the details, it's no fun but works if you do it right :)

1. Basic steps for grabbing

1. Open the development tools (I've used google chrome) [Crtl+Shift+I / F12]
2. Open the Network tab
3. Open https://music.youtube.com, log out, log in, browse a bit around like clicking on the library in the top menu
4. Search for "browse" (for me only one item shows up)
5. Go to "headers" -> "request headers"
6. copy everything starting after the "accept: /" (mark with a mouse and copy to clipboard)

2. Please use the config flow of Home Assistant

7. Open Configuration -> Integrations -> "add integration" -> "YouTube Music Player"
   1. If the integration didn't show up in the list please REFRESH the page
8. Paste the cookie into the indicated field, all other fields are optional or provide default values
   1. It is highly recommended to enter the entity_id of your default output player, otherwise you have to set that after every reboot
   2. The second page shows several entity_ids for dropdown field. You can leave the default values, even if you don't want to use those field and don't add them to your configuration... or clear the field ... both will work fine (see below)

Installation went fine, what now?

At this point you should have a new entity called media_player.ytube_music_player (or similar if you've changed the name). Open the media_browser, make sure this new media_player is selected (lower right corner). You'll see an overview of differnt types like playlists / albums etc. Go, open a section and click play on one of those items. At this point you should hear some music from the remote_player.

@pathofleastresisor build a great custom card for the ytube_music_player that you can find here. I really recommend to use this card to ease the navigation within YouTube.

Ok, the media_browser and polr-ytube-media-card are nice, but what if you want a little more? Like automations, or call it via Node-Red or Appdaemon .. I mean, we're in HomeAssistant, right? Well you don't have to use the media_browser. You can start a playback directly. All you need to know is the 'type' of the media (playlist / album / track / ..) and the 'id'.

The easiest way to get those information is to start the playback once with the media_browser and then (while it is still playing) checkout the media_player state. Go to 'development tools' -> 'states' and find media_player.ytube_music_player. It will display some attributes. Note _media_id (e.g. 'PL1ua59sKbGkcgVVsiMuPxlq5vaIJn4Ise') and _media_type (e.g. 'playlist') Once you have those information, stop the playback. Go to the service tab ('development tools' -> 'services') and find the service called 'Media Player: Play media'. Click on 'fill example data' and you should see something like this:

service: media_player.play_media
target:
  entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
data:
  media_content_id: https://home-assistant.io/images/cast/splash.png
  media_content_type: music

Replace the 'https://home-assistant.io/images/cast/splash.png' with your 'id' from _media_id above and music with the _media_type and hit 'call service'.
Now the same music should start playing. Neat right? From here you can go on and create your automations. (Also see 'Automations' section below).

Shortcuts

The screenshot below shows the mini-media-player from kalkih (https://github.com/kalkih/mini-media-player)

This mediaplayer offers shortcuts, which can be used to directly start the playback of a album or playback. It can even be used to change the remote_player with a single click.

- type: 'custom:mini-media-player'
  entity: media_player.ytube_music_player
  artwork: cover
  hide:
    shuffle: false
    icon_state: false
  shortcuts:
    columns: 3
    buttons:
      - name: Badezimmer
        type: source
        id: badezimmer
      - name: Keller
        type: source
        id: keller
      - name: Laptop
        type: source
        id: bm_8e5f874f_8dfcb60f
      - name: My Likes
        type: channel
        id: PLZvjm51R8SGuxxxxxxx-A17Kp3jZfg6pg
      - name: Lala
        type: playlist
        id: PLZvjm51R8SGuxxxxxxx-A17Kp3jZfg6pg

Services

There are multiple services available the most important once are media_player.select_source and media_player.play_media.
media_player.select_source will change the 'remote_player', just pass the entity_id of the new remote speaker to it.

mini-media-player shortcut type	service call	details
source	media_player.select_source source=id and entity_id=[this]	selects the media_player that plays the music. id can be an entity_id like media_player.speaker123 or just the name speaker123

To start a playback use the media_player.play_media service.

type for mini-media-player or media_content_type for the service call	details
playlist	plays a playlist from YouTube. You can get the playlist Id from the Youtube Music website. Open a playlist from the library and copy the id from the link e.g. https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6H6TfFpYvpersxxxxxxxxxaPueTqieF. You can also use media_content_id: all_library_tracks to start a playlist with all tracks from your library.
channel	Starts a radio based on a playlist. So the id has to be a playlist_id
vid_channel	Starts a radio based on a videoId. So the id has to be a video_id
album	plays an album. You can get the album Id from the Youtube Music website. Open an album from the library https://music.youtube.com/library/albums and copy the Id from the links
track	will play only one dedicated track
history	will play a playlist from your recent listen music on the website or the app the music that you play with this component will not show up in the list
user_tracks	this type will play the uploaded tracks of a user
user_album	uploaded album of a user
user_artist	play all uploaded tracks of an artists

All calls to media_player.play_media need three arguments: media_content_id is the equivalent of the shortcut id, media_content_type represents the type (e.g. album) and the entity_id is always media_player.ytube_music_player

You can also select the music you want to listen to via the media_browser and look up the media_content_type and media_content_id in the attributs of the player.

In addition the following special commands are also available:

Service	parameter	details
ytube_music_player.rate_track	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, rating: thumb_up / thumb_down / thumb_middle / thumb_toggle_up_middle, rate_track, song_id: ID of the track	Rates the currently playing song (or if provided: the song_id). The current rating is available as 'likeStatus' attribute of the player entity_id. middle means that the rating will be 'indifferent' so basically removes your previous rating
ytube_music_player.limit_count	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, limit: number of tracks	Limits the amount of tracks that is loaded into the playlist, e.g. to stop playing after 3 tracks. Setting -1 as value disables the feature again.
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: reload_dropdowns	Reloads the dropdown list of all media_players and also the playlists. Might be nice to reload those lists without reboot HA
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: interrupt_start	Special animal 1/2: This will stop the current track, but note the position in the track. It will also store the track number in the playlist and the playlist. Finally it will UNTRACK the media_player. As result you can e.g. play another sound on that player, like a door bell or a warning
ytube_music_player.start_radio	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player	Starts a radio, based on the current playing track
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: interrupt_resume	Special animal 2/2: This is the 2nd part and will resume the playback
ytube_music_player.add_to_playlist	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, song_id: define the ID of the song you want to add. Skip this parameter if you want to add the song that is currently playing, playlist_id: define the ID of the playlist, skip this if you've started a channel based on your own playlist and want to add the song to that playlist	Adds a song to a playlist
ytube_music_player.remove_from_playlist	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, song_id: define the ID of the song you want to remove. Skip this parameter if you want to remove the song that is currently playing, playlist_id: define the ID of the playlist, skip this if you want to remove the song from the current playlist (requires that you've started playing via playlist)	Removes a song from a playlist
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: off_is_idle	Some media_player integrations, like MPD or OwnTone server, switch to off state at the end of a song instead of switching to idle state. Calling this method will make YTube music player detect an off state also as "idle" state. Consequence ofcourse is that manual turning off of the remote player will also trigger next song.
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: paused_is_idle	Some media_player integrations, like Sonos, will switch to paused at the end of a song instead of switching to idle state. Calling this method will make YTube music player detect a paused state also as "idle" state. Consequence ofcourse is that manual pausing of the remote player will also trigger next song.
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: idle_is_idle	If the idle detection method was changed by calling the off_is_idle or paused_id_idle method, this service call will reset the idle detection back to the default behavior where the next song is only started when the remote media_player switches to the actual idle state.
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: ignore_paused_on_media_change	Some media_player integrations, like OwnTone server, temporarily switch to paused when next/prev track is manually selected or when a new position in the current track is selected (seek). By default YTube music player will always try to sync its state with the remote player, hence in this case pause playback on next/prev track or seek actions. Calling this method will make YTube music player ignore next playing -> paused state change of the remote player whenever a manual next/prev track or seek action is performed.
ytube_music_player.call_method	entity_id: media_player.ytube_media_player, command: do_not_ignore_paused_on_media_change	This call will reset a previous ignore_paused_on_media_change call.

Dropdowns, Buttons and Marksdowns

The player can controlled with shortcut from the mini-media-player, with direct calls to the offered services or simply by turing the player on. However certain extra informations are required to controll what will be played and where to support the "one-click-turn-on" mode. These are presented in the form of drop-down fields, as shown in the screenshot below. Go to the 'options' dialog (configflow) and choose the dropdowns you want to use.

The player attributes contain addition informations, like the playlist and if available the lyrics of the track The yaml setup is available at package/markdown.yaml

Automations

Play my favorite playlist in random mode on my kitchen speaker (kuche)

alias: ytube morning routine
sequence:
  - service: media_player.select_source
    data:
      source: kuche
      entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
  - service: media_player.shuffle_set
    data:
      shuffle: true
      entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
      media_content_id: PL6H6TfFpYvpersEdHECeWkocaPueTqieF
      media_content_type: playlist
mode: single

Interrupt current playback, play a "DingDong" and resume playback

alias: dingdong
sequence:
  - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
    entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
    data:
      command: interrupt_start
  - variables:
      vol: '{{ state_attr("media_player.keller_2", "volume_level") }}'
  - service: media_player.volume_set
    entity_id: media_player.keller_2
    data:
      volume_level: 1
  - service: media_player.play_media
    entity_id: media_player.keller_2
    data:
      media_content_id: 'http://192.168.2.84:8123/local/dingdong.mp3'
      media_content_type: music
  - delay: '00:00:02'
  - service: media_player.volume_set
    entity_id: media_player.keller_2
    data:
      volume_level: 0
  - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
    entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
    data:
      command: interrupt_resume
  - service: media_player.volume_set
    entity_id: media_player.keller_2
    data:
      volume_level: '{{vol}}'
mode: single

Play a radio on the current track:

alias: RadioOnSong
sequence:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_id: >
        {{state_attr("media_player.ytube_music_player","_media_id") }}
      media_content_type: vid_channel
    entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player

Proxy

Some media_players have issues playing the forwarded streams from YTube music player. E.g. Playback on Sonos speakers returns a "mime-type unknown" error. Also many DLNA devices are quite picky about the stream and may fail to play it for several reasons (e.g. URL too long, invalid format). A workaround is to use a proxy that will in turn stream a compatible file to the problem device.

Method 1: Built-in proxy

YTube music player provides a simple built-in proxy functionality where it will download the current track and place it in a local folder (e.g. /config/www) and forward a predefined url pointing to that downloaded track to the target media_player.

Update 01/2022: Playback using the proxy is currently flawed. YouTube Music reduced the download speed to something close to real-time. The solution below relied on a fast download and thus won't work any more (will take ~3min to buffer the song before it can be played).

This feature can be activated by providing two settings:

1. proxy_path | This is the local folder, that the component is using to STORE the file. The easiest way it to provide your www folder. Be aware: If you're using a docker image (or HassOS) that the component looks from INSIDE the image. So for most users the path will be /config/www
2. proxy_url | The path will be send to your Sonos speaker. So typically this should be something like http://192.168.1.xxx:8123/local. Please note that https will only work if you have a valid ssl-certificat, otherwise the Sonos will not connect.

You can also use a dedicated server, if you don't want to use homeassistant as http server, or you have some special SSL setup. If you're running docker anyway you could try docker run --restart=always --name nginx-ytube-proxy -p 8080:80 -v /config/www:/usr/share/nginx/html:ro -d nginx This will spin up server on port 8080 that serves /config/www so your proxy_url would have to be http://192.168.1.xxx:8080.

You can use this also with other speakers, but it will in general add some lack as the component has to download the track before it will start the playback. So if you don't need it: don't use it. If you have further question or if this is working for you please provide some feedback at #38 as I can't test this on my own easily. Thanks!

Method 2: OwnTone server as proxy

OwnTone server through the OwnTone HA integration is able to play the stream provided by YTube music player and can output the stream to either OwnTone server configured targets (by default it should detect DLNA and AirPlay devices on the network) or serve the stream as a file http://SERVER_ADDRESS:3689/stream.mp3 in real-time.

• Set up OwnTone server

  You can set up an independent OwnTone server using the instructions here or you can use the OwnTone server HA addon by @a-marcel. Note: Currently only the beta version from this repo seems to work with recent versions of HA.

• Install the HA OwnTone integration

  After installation, it should automatically detect your OwnTone server. See the OwnTone integration page for more information.

• After a restart of HA you should now be able to select the OwnTone server as target speaker

  However the OwnTone server/integration has a few odities of its own: it will turn to state 'off' instead of 'idle' at the end of a track and it will shortly switch to state 'paused' when next/previous track is selected or when performing a seek in the current track. YTube music player can handle this, but requires some extra service calls to know about this behavior:

  • Send commands off_is_idle and ignore_paused_on_media_change to the YTube music player entity.

As mentioned above, OwnTone should auto-detect DLNA and Airplay devices automatically, if they are in the same subnet as the OwnTone server. If that is the case, you can set the current output of OwnTone server using the OwnTone integration.

For other devices like e.g. Sonos speakers, or if you have problems with the auto-detection of OwnTone, you can use HA media_player integrations (Sonos, DLNA, ...) to play the URL http://SERVER_ADDRESS:3689/stream.mp3 which should contain the YTube music stream when YTube music player is streaming to the OwnTone media_player.

Example automation to set up YTube music player when OwnTone server is set as target speaker:

alias: Set YT Music player settings according to selected speakers
mode: single
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - select.ytube_music_player_speaker
    from: null
    to: null
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: select.ytube_music_player_speaker
            state: OwnTone server                
        sequence:
          - alias: Detect OFF state also as idle
            service: ytube_music_player.call_method
            data:
              entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
              command: off_is_idle
          - alias: Ignore PLAYING to PAUSED transition after media change
            service: ytube_music_player.call_method
            data:
              entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
              command: ignore_paused_on_media_change
    default:
      - alias: Only detect IDLE state as idle
        service: ytube_music_player.call_method
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
          command: idle_is_idle
      - alias: Do NOT ignore PLAYING to PAUSED transitions
        service: ytube_music_player.call_method
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
          command: do_not_ignore_paused_on_media_change

Example automation to play the OwnTone server stream on Sonos speakers:

alias: Play OwnTone stream on Sonos
mode: single
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - media_player.owntone_server
    to: playing
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_type: music
      media_content_id: http://[server IP]:3689/stream.mp3
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.sonos

Auto Advance

When playing a playlist / album / radio the natural expectation is to play the next track once the last has finished. Ytube_music_player can't offload this task to the remote_player (the one that actually plays the music) as most players don't support playlists.

Thus Ytube_music_player has to track the status the remote_player and detect the 'end of track' to start the next track from the list.

Most player I've tested (Chromecast / Google Home / Browser Mod) will transistion from playing to idle. As a result the code of Ytube_music_player will play the next track whenever this state transition happens.

Sadly not all player follow this logic. E.g. MPD based media_player will transition from playing to off at the end of a tack, some sonos speaker will switch to paused. I've added special commands to Ytube_music_player to overcome those issues. This will change the way ytube_music_player will react on state changes. E.g. if the off_is_idle command was sent, ytube_music_player will advance to the next track whenever the remote_player will transition from playing to off. This will enable auto-next-track.

Off is Idle / Paused is idle / Idle is idle

Some media_players like MPD or OwnTone server will transition to off instead of idle at the end of each track as mentioned above. Other media_players like Sonos may transition to paused instead of idle. You can set Ytube_music_player to handle this by performing a service call with command off_is_idle or paused_is_idle.

The drawback is obviously that you can't switch off the playback on the remote_player anymore (meaning the off button of media_player.mpd) because ytube_music_player will understand this as the end of the track. You can of course still shutdown the playback by turning off ytube_music_player.

To reset this behavior and only start a next song when an actual transition to idle is detected, send the command idle_is_idle.

If you will only use e.g. MPD as target player, you can do this during startup of homeassistant using this automation from @lightzhuk in your configuration:

- alias: mpd_fix
  initial_state: true
  trigger:
    - platform: homeassistant
      event: start
  action:
    - delay: 00:00:12
    - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
      entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
      data:
        command: off_is_idle

Or you can add an automation triggered on the select.ytube_music_player_speaker entity to set this behavior depending on the selected target:

alias: Set YT Music player auto advance detection according to selected speakers
mode: single
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - select.ytube_music_player_speaker
    from: null
    to: null
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: or
            conditions:
              - condition: state
                entity_id: select.ytube_music_player_speaker
                state: Mpd
              - condition: state
                entity_id: select.ytube_music_player_speaker
                state: OwnTone server                
        sequence:
          - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
            data:
              entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
              command: off_is_idle
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: select.ytube_music_player_speaker
            state: Sonos
        sequence:
          - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
            data:
              entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
              command: paused_is_idle
    default:
      - service: ytube_music_player.call_method
        data:
          entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player
          command: idle_is_idle

Debug Information

I've added extensive debugging information to the component. So if you hit an error, please see if you can get as many details as possible for the issue by enabling the debug-log-level for the component. This will produce quite a lot extra information in the log (configuration -> logs).

There are two ways to enable the debug output (as of 20210303):

1. Reroute debug output to error via service

• Open Developer tools
• open service tab
• call service below

service: ytube_music_player.call_method
data:
  entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player <-- replace this with your player 
  command: debug_as_error
  parameters: [0]

This will instantly post all messages as errors until you reboot homeassistant:

2. Let Homeassistant show debug information

• edit the configuration.yaml and add the logger section
• Please keep in mind that a restart of Homeassistant is needed to apply this change.

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    custom_components.ytube_music_player: debug

Multiple accounts

Not yet tested, but should work in general. Please create two entities via the Config_flow and use different paths for the header file

FAQ

• [Q] Where are the input_select fields?
  [A] After Version 20240420.02,You can find the options in advanced settings to choose the select entities you want to use,they will be automatically added to Home Assistant.
  Existing users can continue using the original input_select(s) which are created by the yaml.If you want to use the new select(s), follow these steps:
  1.) Setting the IDs of the original inputs to a blank space character will permanently delete this field.
  2.) Use checkboxes in the advance configuration to choose the new select entities you want to use.
  3.) If everything is working correctly(after adjusting your dashboard and automations), delete the YAML file used to create the old input entities.

• [Q] Where can I find the ID for e.g. a playlist?
  [A] simply start the playlist / album / track via the media_browser. Once the music is playing open the developer tools -> states and search for your media_player.ytube_music_player. Note the _media_type and the _media_id and use them for your service calls / shortcuts

• [Q] I get 'malformed used input' what should I do?
  [A] I can't really explain what happens here, but simply remove the integration (on the integration page, no need to remove it via HACS) and set it up once more.

• [Q] What is legacy radio?
  [A] YouTube Music offers differnt ways to play a radio. The 'legacy' version would choose a random track from that playlist and create a radio based on that single track. The 'non legacy' version will be based on the complete playlist. At least for me the 'legacy' way offers more variaty, the 'non legacy' is mostly the same list.

• [Q] What is Shuffle vs Random vs Shuffle Random
  [A] Once shuffle is enabled you can choose the method:
  1.) Shuffle will shuffle the playlist on generation and the play straight 1,2,3,..., this is the default
  2.) Random will NOT shuffle the playlist on generation but pick the tracks randomly, repeats can happen
  3.) Shuffle Random will shuffle the playlist on generation and pick the next random, repeats can happen
  You can change the mode when you add the select.ytube_music_player_play_mode

• [Q] Can I search for items
  [A] yes, please have a look at this little clip https://youtu.be/6pQJa0tvVMQ
  basically call the service ytube_music_player.search and open the media_browser after that. There should be a new item that contains the results

• [Q] Why is my playlist limited to 25 entries
  [A] This is the default number that this integration will load. You can change this number via the configuration menu: "configuration" -> "integration" -> "ytube_music_player" -> "configure" -> "Show advance configuration" -> "Limit of simultaniously loaded tracks". Raising that number will increase loading time slightly. Please also make sure that didn't define a lower "limit_count" (see service section)

Credits

This is based on the gmusic mediaplayer of tprelog (https://github.com/tprelog/HomeAssistant-gmusic_player), ytmusicapi (https://github.com/sigma67/ytmusicapi) and pytube (https://github.com/nficano/pytube). This project is not supported nor endorsed by Google. Its aim is not the abuse of the service but the one to improve the access to it. The maintainers are not responsible for misuse.