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 + 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

This is the complex part of the installation. The integration will interact with the YouTube Music server and act as browser. To be able to do this, it needs a valid cookie from another browser session. This section describes how you can grab the cookie. The complete "why" is described in https://ytmusicapi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup.html#copy-authentication-headers. Below is a step-by-step guide. It is highly recommended to use a incognito session in Google chrome for this step, not for privacy but the incognito session will make sure that no old cached cookie is used!

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)

Although YAML configuration is still possible: Please remove it and configure the player via config_flow or several functions will be missing

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 (top 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.

Ok, the media_browser is 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
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

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. The dropdowns can be copied from the yaml at package/default.yaml. You can also rename those dropdowns if you have to (e.g. if you run two players). Go to the 'options' dialog (configflow) and change the default values during the second step to update the ytube_media_player if you do that.

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

Sonos support / Proxy

Update 01/2022: Playback on Sonos Speakers is not longer possible. 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 on the Sonos speaker).

Playback on Sonos speakers has several issues. Just forwarding the stream to the media_player returns a "mime-type unknown" error. I've done some testing on a Sonos Speaker of a friend and found that it is possible to download the current track and serve it from the webserver that homeassistant offers. 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 KoljaWindeler#38 as I can't test this on my own easily. Thanks!

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.

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 has to understand this as end of track. You can of cause still shutdown to playback by turning of ytube_music_player.

MPD fix

The mpd media_player will transition to off instead of idle at the end of each track as mentioned above. Ytube_music_player is able to handle this. Please add this automation from @lightzhuk to 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

Sonos fix

The sonos media_player will transition to pause instead of idle at the end of each track as mentioned above. Ytube_music_player is able to handle this. Please add this automation to your configuration:

- alias: sonos_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: paused_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
entity_id: media_player.ytube_music_player_cf <-- replace this with your player 
command: debug_as_error

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] you have to add them to your configuration, simply copy the content of https://github.com/KoljaWindeler/ytube_music_player/blob/main/package/default.yaml to your configuration.yaml (and restart home-assistant)

• [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 input_select.ytube_music_player_playmode

• [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.