YtToZara is a command line tool that converts a YouTube playlist to a ZaraRadio playlist, downloading tracks as required. Tracks are downloaded in MP3 format using yt-dlp. Silence is trimmed from the start and end of each track using ffmpeg and ffprobe.
This tool creates ZaraRadio .lst playlists. ZaraRadio is a Windows only app. YtToZara has been tested with Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- YtToZara has been tested with ZaraRadio 1.6.2 Free Edition.
- It has not been tested with ZaraStudio
ZaraRadio will not play tracks that have non-Latin characters in the filename. To work around this all punctuation characters and non-Latin characters are converted to underscores.
YtToZara depends on Java 17, which must be on the Windows path.
Earlier versions of YtToZara required yt-dlp, ffmpeg and ffprobe to be on the Windows path. path. Starting with v2.0.0 that's no longer a requirement, as YtToZara will download its own copies of these apps.
- Make sure that Java 17 is on the path.
- Download the latest release
(scroll down to
Assetsto find the ZIP file.) - Unzip the downloaded file into a folder.
- Add the
YtToZarafolder to the user path.
- Use the command
YtToZaraUIfrom a command prompt. - YtToZara will download it's dependencies, if required.
- When prompted, enter the URL of a YouTube playlist.
Note: The playlist must be public or unlisted. This app does not work with private playlists.
- YtToZara will download the metadata and audio streams.
- The audio files will be converted to MP3s.
Note: The MP3s will have a bit-rate of 128 kbps. This is the highest bit-rate that YouTube provides for free accounts.
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YtToZara will trim silence from the beginning and end of each track. This works fine for speech and most music. If it causes you problems then please log an issue and I'll look into it.
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YtToZara will normalise every track.
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A ZaraRadio playlist will be created. The playlist will have the same name as the YouTube playlist.