Watching videos from YouTube is great until your internet subscription is used up. This is why downloading a Youtube playlist or video is useful. Well most of us would want to listen to YouTube music all day long but the limited internet we have won’t allow us.
Youtube provides a download feature for users subscribed to YouTube Premium which was previously called YouTube Red. Other than the free downloads on YouTube Premium, there are plenty of other goodies there so if you would want to enjoy them, check them out.
Fortunately, there are alternatives for us who are not subscribed to YouTube Premium. Various programs have been developed to help us download YouTube videos and playlists. But unfortunately, this act breaches
Contents
How to download YouTube playlist with IDM
We shall use a website called YouTube multi-download for some part of the process.
YouTube multi-downloader is a free online tool that allows you to download YouTube videos, playlists, and youtube channels as well. With YouTube multi-downloader, you can download an unlimited number of files at a single download.
So let’s dive in
Step 1
Access the website at youtube multi-downloader.
From the site navigation menu, click on
Step 2
Copy the YouTube URL of the playlist with Ctrl + C and paste it in the playlist link field on the YouTube multi-downloader page.
This will capture the download links of all the videos in the playlist and list them.
From here you can download all the videos at once using IDM
Step 3
IDM is by far one of the fastest computer downloaders.
If you already have IDM installed on your computer, you can skip this step.
Otherwise, If you don’t have IDM already installed on your computer, download it from here. After downloading, double-click the executable file and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Step 4
To download a playlist with IDM, select and copy the auto-generated text below the playlist link on the youtube multi-downloader site. Do this by pressing Ctrl + A to highlight the text and then press Ctrl + C to copy it.
Step 5
Open Notepad from the Windows start menu and create a new text file. Paste the text copied from the youtube multi-downloader site thereby pressing Ctrl + V.
Save the text file to the desktop with a name of your choice (e.g. “my playlist.txt”). Don’t forget the .txt at the end of the file name
Step 6
Now open IDM.
From the top left corner of the IDM window, click on Tasks > Import > From text file.
Locate the text file you’ve just saved and click open. The download links of the videos will be captured.
At the bottom of the window, click on Check all > Ok > Start queueing.
The playlist download will start.
Be patient while the downloads progress. You will be notified after each complete download of a video.
Alternative way to download a YouTube playlist
4K Video Downloader
4K video downloader is a free software program available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The program allows you to download YouTube playlists and videos in either video or audio format. The program can also be used to download videos from Facebook, Vimeo, and Dailymotion
With this powerful tool, you can not only download playlists but can as well download a whole YouTube channel. This is almost like having YouTube servers on your computer.
To download the 4K video downloader, visit their official website.
Using 4K Video Downloader
Step 1
Open the program after installation.
From your browser, visit the YouTube address of the playlist you want to download, or if the playlist is already open, just copy its URL/link (highlight it and press Ctrl + C).
Step 2
From the program window, click on the green icon
The URL will be captured automatically from the clipboard, or you can paste it manually by pressing Ctrl + V.
From the confirmation dialogue, you can choose to either download the whole playlist or a single video clip.
Our aim is to download a playlist so click on the Download playlist.
Step 3
If asked to enter a license key, click on skip to continue with the download.
Be patient until all the videos are parsed successfully.
When the parsing is done, select whether to download video files or audio files. Choose the download quality and then click download.
Finally, just be patient until all the downloads are complete.
Note: Additional features of the tool can be added after purchasing a license key. These features include the ability to download a whole youtube channel, subscriptions, and video subtitles.
Conclusion
Even though all these programs exist, downloading content from YouTube is prohibited and while you’re doing it, it’s at your own risk.
It is clearly stated in YouTube’s Terms of Service that:
You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content