Google's video hosting and streaming service YouTube offers one of the largest selections of music videos and playlists on the planet. You can listen to the music for free, if you do not mind ads or have found a way to get around them, or pay Google to get an ad-free experience and some extra features.

YouTube Music Desktop App is an unofficial cross-platform application for YouTube Music. It is open source, runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows devices, and has a few aces up its sleeve that make it the better experience.

When you run the app for the first time, you are greeted by a clean interface that resembles Google's YouTube website.

The entry points are listed on the left, while the middle and right is reserved for browsing the vast music catalog, searching, listening, and interactions. You do not need to sign in to use the service, but you could, if you wanted to.

The frontpage lists plenty of options: from an 80s rock ballads kick over the megahits of the 90s to specific albums or special playlists for every mood.

So, click on a music title or playlist, and playback starts immediately. One thing that you may notice is that there are not any ads. The reason for that is that the application comes with an integrated content blocker that is part of the application's plugin system.

Talking about plugins, the app supports a large list of plugins that provide you with new features or improvements.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Downloader to download Mp3 files using youtube-dl.
• Equalizer for that extra bit of bass.
• Age restrictions bypasser.
• Skip silences or disliked songs.
• Sponsorblock integration.
• Remove all Google login prompts, buttons and links.

And much more. Note that you need to enable most of the plugins before they become available. This requires a restart of the application.

Further customization options are displayed in the options menu. Here you can change the language, configure auto-start behavior, or enable visual tweaks. The program is configured to update automatically, resume the last song when the app starts, and block any attempts to start another instance of it.

Verdict

The unofficial YouTube Music Desktop App has been around for quite some time. Its first version dates back to April 2019 and plenty of updates have been released since. The app is easy to use, and the one thing that you may dislike about it is that it is Electron-based.

Still, with all the plugins installed already, it offers one of the cleanest experience when it comes to YouTube Music.