This is a short tutorial on how to download an entire youtube playlist with just one command line with yt-dlp, an open source package, No ads, No subscriptions.
Step 1 : Install yt-dlp
To install the package, use wget
wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O yt-dlp
Step 2: Make it executable and move to PATH
chmod +x yt-dlp
sudo mv yt-dlp /usr/local/bin/
Test the installation :
yt-dlp --version
Step 3: Install ffmpeg (needed for mp3 conversion)
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg
Download with a single line :
| Option / Format | Command Example |
|---|---|
| Download video (default, best quality) | yt-dlp <URL> |
| Download best video + audio (merge mp4/mkv) | yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" <URL> |
| Extract audio only (default format) | yt-dlp -x <URL> |
| Extract audio as MP3 | yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 <URL> |
| Extract audio as WAV | yt-dlp -x --audio-format wav <URL> |
| Download entire playlist as MP3 (with track numbers) | yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "%(playlist_index)02d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" <PLAYLIST_URL> |
| Save inside folder named after playlist | yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "%(playlist_title)s/%(playlist_index)02d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" <PLAYLIST_URL> |
| Download specific items from playlist (e.g. 1–10, 15, 20) | yt-dlp --playlist-items 1-10,15,20 <PLAYLIST_URL> |
| Download subtitles (if available) | yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-lang en <URL> |
| Embed metadata (artist, album, thumbnail, etc.) into MP3 | yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --embed-metadata --embed-thumbnail <URL> |
| Set custom output filename | yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <URL> |
And that's a wrap
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