??? Song info To download a song, run
```bash
spotdl download [trackUrl]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download https://open.spotify.com/track/0VjIjW4GlUZAMYd2vXMi3b
```
??? Album info To download an album, run
```bash
spotdl download [albumUrl]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download https://open.spotify.com/album/4yP0hdKOZPNshxUOjY0cZj
```
??? Playlist info To download a playlist, run
```bash
spotdl download [playlistUrl]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E8UXBoz02kGID
```
??? Artist info To download all songs from an artist run
```bash
spotdl download [artistUrl]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Xyo4u8uXC1ZmMpatF05PJ
```
??? Search info To search for and download a song, run, with quotation marks
```bash
spotdl download '[songQuery]'
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download 'The Weeknd - Blinding Lights'
```
??? info "YouTube link with Spotify metadata"
To download YouTube video with metadata from Spotify, run
> Noting the quote " are required
```bash
spotdl download "YouTubeURL|SpotifyURL"
```
example:
```bash
spotdl download "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYlFuWEuKI|https://open.spotify.com/track/0VjIjW4GlUZAMYd2vXMi3b?si=b5c0790edc8f4904"
```
??? info "Liked songs"
To download liked Spotify songs run
> --user-auth is required
```bash
spotdl download saved --user-auth
```
??? info "All user playlists"
To download all user playlists run
> --user-auth is required
```bash
spotdl download all-user-playlists --user-auth
```
You can queue up multiple download tasks by separating the arguments with spaces
spotdl download [songQuery1] [albumUrl] [songQuery2] ... (order does not matter)example:
spotdl download 'The Weeknd - Blinding Lights' https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E8UXBoz02kGID ...Files are downloaded in MP3 format for the best compatibility across different platforms/players, but spotDL also supports other output formats like M4A and OPUS.
Note: spotDL never downloads songs in a bitrate higher than 128kbps, except for those with YTMusic Premium, where 256 kbps is available for M4A format.
Note that using the --bitrate flag will convert the file to the specified bitrate, so it may result in larger file sizes with no significant change in quality. If you prefer smaller file sizes, consider using the default bitrate or a lower value.
Converting files might not be ideal for some users who prefer the files in their original quality.
Alternatively, you can use the --bitrate disable option to skip the conversion step for certain file formats such as M4A/OPUS.
YouTube Music Premium users can use their account to download songs with a higher bitrate (256kbps).
To download music in higher quality follow the steps below:
- Get cookies.txt for https://music.youtube.com.
You can use Get cookies.txt extension or cookies.txt for this. More info here
- Add
--cookie-file cookies.txtoption to your spotDL command line options
Replace cookies.txt with the actual name of your cookies file
Note To get the best audio possible you should use M4A/OPUS audio format with
--bitrate disable
Sync function for the console. Keep local files up to date with playlists/albums/etc. This will download new songs and remove the ones that are no longer present in the playlists/albums/etc
??? info "Initialize Synchronization" To create the sync file run
```bash
spotdl sync [query] --save-file [fileName]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl sync https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E8UXBoz02kGID --save-file "the-weeknd.sync.spotdl"
```
> Note: The sync file has to end with .spotdl
??? info "Syncing" To sync the songs run
```bash
spotdl sync [fileName]
```
example:
```bash
spotdl sync "the-weeknd.sync.spotdl"
```
Saves the songs metadata to a file for further use.
spotdl save [query] --save-file [fileName]example:
spotdl save 'The Weeknd - Blinding Lights' --save-file 'the-weeknd.spotdl'??? info "Preloading" Preload the download url to speed up the download process.
```bash
spotdl save [query] --save-file [fileName] --preload
```
example:
```bash
spotdl save 'The Weeknd - Blinding Lights' --save-file 'the-weeknd.spotdl' --preload
```
To start the web UI, run
spotdl webBy default, the web UI downloads files to a special directory, to overwrite this behavior
add option --web-use-output-dir, which will make output directory follow --output
The config file is located at C:\Users\user\.spotdl\config.json
or ~/.spotdl/config.json under linux
Note: If you want to use XDG_DATA_HOME directory, run
mkdir $XDG_DATA_HOME/spotdl, next time you run spotdl it will be automatically used.
To generate a config file, run
spotdl --generate-configNote: This will overwrite the existing config file.
Config file gets loaded automatically if it already exists, or if you've passed --config flag
If you don't want config to load automatically change load_config option in config file to false
{
"load_config": false
}{
"client_id": "5f573c9620494bae87890c0f08a60293",
"client_secret": "212476d9b0f3472eaa762d90b19b0ba8",
"auth_token": null,
"user_auth": false,
"headless": false,
"cache_path": "/Users/username/.spotdl/.spotipy",
"no_cache": false,
"max_retries": 3,
"audio_providers": [
"youtube-music"
],
"lyrics_providers": [
"genius",
"azlyrics",
"musixmatch"
],
"playlist_numbering": false,
"scan_for_songs": false,
"m3u": null,
"output": "{artists} - {title}.{output-ext}",
"overwrite": "skip",
"search_query": null,
"ffmpeg": "ffmpeg",
"bitrate": null,
"ffmpeg_args": null,
"format": "mp3",
"save_file": null,
"filter_results": true,
"threads": 4,
"cookie_file": null,
"restrict": null,
"print_errors": false,
"sponsor_block": false,
"preload": false,
"archive": null,
"load_config": true,
"log_level": "INFO",
"simple_tui": false,
"fetch_albums": false,
"id3_separator": "/",
"ytm_data": false,
"add_unavailable": false,
"generate_lrc": false,
"force_update_metadata": false,
"web_use_output_dir": false,
"port": 8800,
"host": "localhost",
"keep_alive": false,
"allowed_origins": null,
"keep_sessions": false,
"only_verified_results": false
}The output key supports several variables:
| Variable | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
{title} |
Song title | Dark Horse |
{artists} |
Song artists | Katy Perry, Juicy J |
{artist} |
Primary artist | Katy Perry |
{album} |
Album name | PRISM |
{album-artist} |
Primary artist of the album | Katy Perry |
{genre} |
Genre | dance pop |
{disc-number} |
Useful for multi-disc releases | 1 |
{disc-count} |
Total number of discs in the album | 1 |
{duration} |
Duration of the song in seconds | 215.672 |
{year} |
Year of release | 2013 |
{original-date} |
Date of original release | 2013-01-01 |
{track-number} |
Track number in the album | 06 |
{tracks-count} |
Total number of tracks in the album | 13 |
{isrc} |
International Standard Recording Code | USUM71311296 |
{track-id} |
Spotify song ID | 4jbmgIyjGoXjY01XxatOx6 |
{publisher} |
Record label | Capitol Records (CAP) |
{list-length} |
Number of items in a playlist | 10 |
{list-position} |
Position of the song in a playlist | 1 |
{list-name} |
Name of the playlist | Saved |
{output-ext} |
File extension | mp3 |
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
Main options:
{download,save,web,sync,meta,url}
The operation to perform.
download: Download the songs to the disk and embed metadata.
save: Saves the songs metadata to a file for further use.
web: Starts a web interface to simplify the download process.
sync: Removes songs that are no longer present, downloads new ones
meta: Update your audio files with metadata
url: Get the download URL for songs
query Spotify/YouTube URL for a song/playlist/album/artist/etc. to download.
For album/playlist/artist searching, include 'album:', 'playlist:', 'artist:'
(ie. 'album:the album name' you can mix these options to get more accurate results).
To download liked songs use 'saved' as the query, to download all user playlists
use 'all-user-playlists, to download all songs from all followed artists use 'all-user-followed-artists'
For manual audio matching, you can use the format 'YouTubeURL|SpotifyURL'
You can only use album/playlist/tracks urls when downloading/matching youtube urls.
When using youtube url without spotify url, you won't be able to use `--fetch-albums` option.
--audio [{youtube,youtube-music,slider-kz,soundcloud,bandcamp,piped} ...]
The audio provider to use. You can provide more than one for fallback.
--lyrics [{genius,musixmatch,azlyrics,synced} ...]
The lyrics provider to use. You can provide more than one for fallback. Synced lyrics might not work correctly with
some music players. For such cases it's better to use `--generate-lrc` option.
--config Use the config file to download songs. It's located under C:\Users\user\.spotdl\config.json or
~/.spotdl/config.json under linux
--search-query SEARCH_QUERY
The search query to use, available variables: {title}, {artists}, {artist}, {album}, {album-artist}, {genre},
{disc-number}, {disc-count}, {duration}, {year}, {original-date}, {track-number}, {tracks-count}, {isrc}, {track-
id}, {publisher}, {list-length}, {list-position}, {list-name}, {output-ext}
--dont-filter-results
Disable filtering results.
--only-verified-results
Use only verified results. (Not all providers support this)
Spotify options:
--user-auth Login to Spotify using OAuth.
--client-id CLIENT_ID
The client id to use when logging in to Spotify.
--client-secret CLIENT_SECRET
The client secret to use when logging in to Spotify.
--auth-token AUTH_TOKEN
The authorization token to use directly to log in to Spotify.
--cache-path CACHE_PATH
The path where spotipy cache file will be stored.
--no-cache Disable caching (both requests and token).
--max-retries MAX_RETRIES
The maximum number of retries to perform when getting metadata.
--headless Run in headless mode.
--use-cache-file Use the cache file to get metadata. It's located under C:\Users\user\.spotdl\.spotify_cache or
~/.spotdl/.spotify_cache under linux. It only caches tracks and gets updated whenever spotDL gets metadata from
Spotify. (It may provide outdated metadata use with caution)
FFmpeg options:
--ffmpeg FFMPEG The ffmpeg executable to use.
--threads THREADS The number of threads to use when downloading songs.
--bitrate {auto,disable,8k,16k,24k,32k,40k,48k,64k,80k,96k,112k,128k,160k,192k,224k,256k,320k,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}
The constant/variable bitrate to use for the output file. Values from 0 to 9 are variable bitrates. Auto will use
the bitrate of the original file. Disable will disable the bitrate option. (In case of m4a and opus files, auto and
disable will skip the conversion)
--ffmpeg-args FFMPEG_ARGS
Additional ffmpeg arguments passed as a string.
Output options:
--format {mp3,flac,ogg,opus,m4a,wav}
The format to download the song in.
--save-file SAVE_FILE
The file to save/load the songs data from/to. It has to end with .spotdl. If combined with the download operation,
it will save the songs data to the file. Required for save/sync (use - to print to stdout when using save).
--preload Preload the download url to speed up the download process.
--output OUTPUT Specify the downloaded file name format, available variables: {title}, {artists}, {artist}, {album}, {album-
artist}, {genre}, {disc-number}, {disc-count}, {duration}, {year}, {original-date}, {track-number}, {tracks-count},
{isrc}, {track-id}, {publisher}, {list-length}, {list-position}, {list-name}, {output-ext}
--m3u [M3U] Name of the m3u file to save the songs to. Defaults to {list[0]}.m3u8 If you want to generate a m3u for each list
in the query use {list}, If you want to generate a m3u file based on the first list in the query use {list[0]}, (0
is the first list in the query, 1 is the second, etc. songs don't count towards the list number)
--cookie-file COOKIE_FILE
Path to cookies file.
--overwrite {skip,force,metadata}
How to handle existing/duplicate files. (When combined with --scan-for-songs force will remove all duplicates, and
metadata will only apply metadata to the latest song and will remove the rest. )
--restrict [{ascii,strict,none}]
Restrict filenames to a sanitized set of characters for better compatibility
--print-errors Print errors (wrong songs, failed downloads etc) on exit, useful for long playlist
--save-errors SAVE_ERRORS
Save errors (wrong songs, failed downloads etc) to a file
--sponsor-block Use the sponsor block to download songs from yt/ytm.
--archive ARCHIVE Specify the file name for an archive of already downloaded songs
--playlist-numbering Sets each track in a playlist to have the playlist's name as its album, and album art as the playlist's icon
--scan-for-songs Scan the output directory for existing files. This option should be combined with the --overwrite option to control
how existing files are handled. (Output directory is the last directory that is not a template variable in the
output template)
--fetch-albums Fetch all albums from songs in query
--id3-separator ID3_SEPARATOR
Change the separator used in the id3 tags. Only supported for mp3 files.
--ytm-data Use ytm data instead of spotify data when downloading using ytm link.
--add-unavailable Add unavailable songs to the m3u/archive files when downloading
--generate-lrc Generate lrc files for downloaded songs. Requires `synced` provider to be present in the lyrics providers list.
--force-update-metadata
Force update metadata for songs that already have metadata.
--sync-without-deleting
Sync without deleting songs that are not in the query.
--max-filename-length MAX_FILENAME_LENGTH
Max file name length. (This won't override the max file name length enforced by the OS)
--yt-dlp-args YT_DLP_ARGS
Arguments to pass to yt-dlp
--detect-formats [{mp3,flac,ogg,opus,m4a,wav} ...]
Detect already downloaded songs with file format different from the --format option (When combined with --m3u
option, only first detected format will be added to m3u file)
Web options:
--host HOST The host to use for the web server.
--port PORT The port to run the web server on.
--keep-alive Keep the web server alive even when no clients are connected.
--allowed-origins [ALLOWED_ORIGINS ...]
The allowed origins for the web server.
--web-use-output-dir Use the output directory instead of the session directory for downloads. (This might cause issues if you have
multiple users using the web-ui at the same time)
--keep-sessions Keep the session directory after the web server is closed.
Misc options:
--log-level {CRITICAL,FATAL,ERROR,WARN,WARNING,INFO,MATCH,DEBUG,NOTSET}
Select log level.
--simple-tui Use a simple tui.
Other options:
--download-ffmpeg Download ffmpeg to spotdl directory.
--generate-config Generate a config file. This will overwrite current config if present.
--check-for-updates Check for new version.
--profile Run in profile mode. Useful for debugging.
--version, -v Show the version number and exit.