YouTube has tons of awesome music videos. From the latest hip-hop releases to vintage 70s tracks, you’ll find plenty of awesome albums and songs to listen to, regardless of your taste.
However, if you don’t have a reliable, stable, and strong internet connection, listening to YouTube music videos can sometimes be a pain in the neck. You’ll find videos buffering and lagging, which is frustrating.
Fortunately, there are ways to download YouTube music videos, allowing you to listen continuously without buffering. In addition, downloading YouTube music videos will allow you to listen to them offline, when you don’t have access to Wifi, helping you to save on cellular data costs.
This guide will cover how to download YouTube music videos on an iPhone.
The short version: One option is paying for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium, but it costs money and only allows you to listen to the videos offline from within the YouTube or YouTube Music app. Other options include using web apps and iPhone apps.
How to Download YouTube Videos With YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium?
The first option is signing up for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium, which both offer the ability to download YouTube music videos – a feature not available by default.
YouTube Music Premium is YouTube’s premium music streaming service, available in the YouTube Music app. The YouTube Music app is separate from the main YouTube app and contains only music.
Meanwhile, YouTube Premium is a bit more expensive and extends the ad-free experience and the ability to download music to the main YouTube app, where you can download music videos as well. YouTube Premium includes YouTube Music Premium.
Technically, downloading YouTube music videos using third-party methods is a violation of YouTube’s terms of service. YouTube doesn’t want you to do that – it wants you to pay money for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium.
If you want to do things the “right” way, signing up for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium is the way to go. It also makes downloading music videos a lot easier and more straightforward.
Instead of fooling around with third-party downloader apps, which may be buggy or display annoying ads, you can download music videos directly from the YouTube app.
You will find all your downloaded music videos in the YouTube or YouTube Premium app, so you don’t need to use a file manager to organize your downloaded videos, which could easily clog up your storage.
And, of course, signing up for YouTube Premium or Music Premium will give you access to other Premium benefits, the main one being no ads.
Can you believe it? No ads on YouTube!
Ads on YouTube have been getting out of hand recently, in my opinion. Often, you have to watch not one but two ads before starting a video.
It also feels like I get interrupted by ads every few minutes – many content creators are opting to allow ad interruptions throughout their videos (including long music videos, such as sleep music videos) to increase their revenue.
Of course, ads serve a purpose – without ads, YouTube couldn’t sustain itself as a free platform, and content creators wouldn’t be incentivized to produce as much content as they do.
Paying a small monthly fee to remove all ads may be worth it for you. It’s not a necessity, true – it’s just a luxury – but it does make listening to music on YouTube a much more pleasurable experience.
Another significant advantage of Premium is that it allows you to watch videos and play music in the background. In other words, you can use other apps and YouTube will continue playing.
This is very useful when you listen to music or podcasts on YouTube and want to be able to check WhatsApp without shutting off the podcast or music. YouTube Music doesn’t allow you to play songs in the background or when the screen is off unless you sign up for Premium.
YouTube Premium has, unfortunately, gone up in price. No longer is it $11.99/month; now, it is $13.99/month.
The annual plan costs $139.99/year, while there is a student plan available at $7.99/month.
If you’re buying it for the whole family, get the YouTube Premium Family Plan, which costs $22.99/month and lets you add up to five other users, not including yourself.
YouTube Music Premium is a bit cheaper, at $10.99/month, $109.99/year, $5.49/month for students, and $16.99/month for the family plan. You will only be able to enjoy its benefits in the YouTube Music app, not in the main YouTube app.
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Here’s a big trick: Don’t subscribe to YouTube Premium in the iOS app.
YouTube Premium’s price is hiked by a few dollars in the iOS app (it’s $18.99/month), and that is because those payments go through the Apple App Store, and YouTube has to increase its fee due to Apple charging a commission on all sales.
It doesn’t really matter where you sign up for YouTube Premium. Once you are a YouTube Premium subscriber, you will get YouTube Premium on any device, provided you are signed in with the same Google account.
Therefore, I recommend signing up for YouTube Premium in your browser – even in your iPhone’s mobile browser – instead of the iOS app. Then, just sign into the YouTube iOS app using the same account, and voilà – you will have YouTube Premium.
Check updated pricing for YouTube premium here and Youtube Music Premium here.
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Note that YouTube Premium and YouTube Music are not available in all countries.
Once you have subscribed, you will see a download button when playing a music video. Simply click on it to download the video.
You will be able to access all your downloaded videos by heading to your library in the app (either the YouTube or YouTube Music app), where you will see the downloaded section.
Here’s another tip: When using the main YouTube app, you can set the default download quality settings in your YouTube app settings.
If you download different types of videos, you can have the app ask you each time you download which quality the downloaded video should be. For podcasts and music, you usually don’t need high-quality video, only audio, and using a lower video quality will use up less data, increase the download speed, and use up less storage space on your iPhone.
Yes, downloading YouTube videos in-app does use up storage space on your device, even if you can’t find those videos in your media gallery or storage files.
YouTube videos that you downloaded can be accessed offline. If you cancel your YouTube Premium subscription, though, you will no longer be able to access them.
The disadvantages of using this method are several.
First of all, you must access your downloads in the YouTube or YouTube Music app. You won’t find them in your video gallery or device audio files.
That also means you can’t share downloaded audio with someone else over WhatsApp, AirDrop, etc. You can share the YouTube video link, but they will need to use data to watch the video.
The other disadvantage is that it costs money! $13.99/month or $10.99/month might not seem like a lot at first, but it does add up over the course of a year.
If you are looking for a free way to download YouTube music videos on an iPhone, read on.
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How to Download YouTube Music Videos for Free Using a Web App?
There are many websites that allow you to download YouTube music videos. These websites fetch the video from YouTube and download it in a video or audio format.
You don’t need to pay money for this, as there are many free apps that work just fine. However, they often have annoying ads and redirects.
That means you have to be careful. Avoid clicking on the ads you see on such sites.
When a site redirects you to another page displaying an advertisement, don’t give that page time to load. Close it right away and return to the web app, as those websites may freeze your iPhone, display annoying ads, and even contain adware or malware.
Unfortunately, a lot of these sites will redirect you to advertisements every time you try to download a video, which can be annoying. However, it is the price to pay for getting free stuff.
The videos you download from these sites will be available in your phone’s gallery or audio files (depending on the format you selected). You can share them via WhatsApp, AirDrop, or any other sharing method – you can also listen to them in any audio player.
Let’s go through my favorite sites for downloading YouTube music videos. You’ll need to use a web browser, such as Chrome or Safari, to access them on your iPhone.
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1. Y2mate
Y2mate has always been my go-to site for downloading YouTube music videos. Yes, it has annoying ads and redirects, but it is the only site that has served me well over the years.
The redirects are manageable; simply make sure to close them as soon as they pop up. Otherwise, you’ll see ridiculous spammy ads, like the ones claiming you won a free Samsung phone (you’d have to be stupid to fall for that).
To download YouTube music videos from Y2mate, simply get the YouTube video link and paste it into the field on the Y2mate homepage.
Getting the YouTube video link is fairly simple. Just go to YouTube, click on the share button while listening to a music video (or from the three-dot menu when browsing YouTube), and then click on the option to copy the link.
Then, paste the link into Y2mate.
Then, click on download, and you will be presented with download options, including different file formats.
I’m assuming you only want to download audio, not video, and you can do so by switching to the audio tab and selecting the MP3 file format.
Choose the format and quality you want, and then click on the download button. Wait as it prepares your video and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the download, closing the annoying redirects as needed.
Another reason I like Y2mate is that it allows you to search for music videos by artist, keyword, or genre. This way, you can find popular music videos, for example, without having to go back and forth to YouTube – just search for each video in the search bar instead of pasting a link there.
Then, just click on any of the results to download the video using the same process I described above.
To save time, you can also use the PP trick.
Copy a YouTube URL, and then paste it in your browser on your iPhone. However, before clicking enter, add pp to the URL, like this: Youtubepp.com/abcdefg.
This will redirect you to Y2mate’s download interface.
2. SaveFrom.net
Another great website to use is SaveFrom.net.
I like SaveFrom.net because it supports a wide range of sites, not just YouTube.
To download a video from SaveFrom.net, simply copy and paste the YouTube music video link into the bar. Then, click on the green download button.
Choose your desired video or audio quality from the drop-down menu and proceed with the download process, closing the redirects as necessary.
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3. Dirpy
A site that I really like is Dirpy, and you will see why in a minute.
To get started with Dirpy, enter a URL or search term in the search bar on the homepage. That’s nothing we haven’t seen so far, yet.
What you will see on the next page will surprise you, though. There is a wide range of download options, more than what the other downloading sites we have seen so far have to offer.
First of all, it offers more information about the video, such as the file name and title. You can edit the file name.
You will also see the start and end time of the video, which you can change! For example, let’s say you only want the first minute of the music video.
Simply change the end time to one minute, and Dirpy will only download the first minute. How cool is that?
This is also useful when you want to cut out the beginning or end of a live music video, which may contain cheering from the crowd that you don’t want to hear.
It allows you to crop music videos before downloading them. Otherwise, you would have to crop them after downloading, which is an extra hassle that also requires you to use up more storage space.
There is also a wide range of file formats and video/audio quality options to choose from. Some, though, are only available to premium users.
Just click on “Record Video” to download the music video to your phone. Click on “Record Audio” to download an audio-only version.
Note that if you edit the start or end time or if you decide to embed subtitles, you will be prompted to sign up for Dirpy Premium. The same applies if you pick one of the premium-only resolutions.
However, Dirpy Premium costs just $9.99/month, or $6.99/month when you pay annually. That makes it cheaper than YouTube Premium and even YouTube Music Premium.
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You can always check for updated pricing by checking the pricing page. There, you can also see the cost of Dirpy Pro (which costs more than Dirpy Premium) and compare the features of each plan.
4. Loader.to
The last website I will be featuring here is Loader.to. It allows you to download music videos from YouTube by pasting the URL into the bar and clicking the big blue download button.
It does have ads and redirects, but they are manageable.
Make sure to choose an MP4 file format if you want to download a music video and not an audio version.
Using an App to Download YouTube Music Videos
It’s harder to find apps that allow you to download YouTube music videos on the Apple App Store compared to the Google Play Store. That’s because Apple is stricter in regard to which apps it approves.
Nevertheless, it is possible to download apps from third-party websites. These apps allow you to download YouTube music videos, but they may not be free.
Note that when downloading third-party apps on iOS, you need to authorize them. By default, your iPhone might block them due to security reasons.
Business Insider has an excellent guide on how to allow third-party apps on iOS.
Also Read: Best YouTube Videos To MP3 Converters Online
Inovideo and YouTube Downloader
Inovideo is an app, available for a variety of operating systems (including iOS), that allows you to download YouTube music videos in various definitions.
You can opt to get the Inovideo app, which allows you to download from many sources, not just YouTube. In fact, over 1,000 popular sources are supported, so it’s a good option if you also want to download music videos from TikTok and other sites.
Alternatively, you can get Inovideo’s dedicated YouTube Downloader app, which is available for iOS and focuses on YouTube videos only.
Unfortunately, it’s not free, although it does offer a free trial that lets you try it out before you buy it.
Since it costs money, you may wonder whether it’s worth paying for Inovideo instead of just getting YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium. I’d say that it’s only worth it if you really want to watch the videos from your phone’s gallery and share them with others; otherwise, just pay for YouTube Music Premium.
Just Another YouTube Downloader
Just Another YouTube Downloader, or JAYD, is actually a shortcut, not an app. I like it because it allows you to download music videos directly from the YouTube share options.
In YouTube, click on the share options and then select the JAYD shortcut to download the videos.
The JAYD shortcut requires the Scriptable app to be installed. That’s because the JAYD shortcut uses JavaScript, and the Scriptable app allows automation with JavaScript on iOS.
Updates have been made for iOS 16. Nevertheless, some users have reported issues.
Therefore, if you find it buggy, use one of the other options I talked about in this article.
Final Thoughts
Downloading YouTube music videos to your iPhone will help you save data and allow you to listen to music offline.
The cheapest and easiest method is to use one of the web apps I listed above. However, if money is not an issue, you can also sign up for YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium.
However, you won’t be able to share your downloaded music, and you will be limited to viewing or listening to them within the YouTube app.
