Why can’t I play music from YouTube?
Copyright Restrictions
YouTube videos contain copyrighted music that cannot be downloaded or played outside of YouTube due to licensing restrictions. According to YouTube’s Copyright Rules & Policies, users should not upload videos containing content that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, without permission. The copyright holder’s policies affect how the video can be used. As stated in YouTube’s help article on claimed music, if a video contains copyrighted music, it may get a Content ID claim limiting its use.
YouTube Terms of Service
YouTube’s Terms of Service prohibit users from downloading videos or extracting the audio from videos without permission. The Terms state: “You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content.”
This restriction is in place because of how YouTube makes money. As an ad-supported platform, YouTube needs users to watch videos on their site and app so they can serve ads. Downloading videos would allow people to avoid viewing ads, hurting YouTube’s business model.
YouTube also has licensing agreements with content creators that restrict how and where their content is used. Downloading videos or audio could constitute copyright infringement if redistributed or used outside of YouTube, violating their agreements.
So in summary, downloading and extracting audio from YouTube violates their Terms of Service designed to protect their advertising revenue model and respect licensing deals with creators.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
YouTube uses digital rights management (DRM) and encryption technology to prevent unauthorized playback and distribution of copyrighted content. This prevents users from easily downloading or recording music and video from YouTube.
DRM encrypts the audio and video streams, and decryption requires approval from Google’s servers each time content is requested. This authorization system ensures that only paying YouTube Premium subscribers can download content for offline playback.
For free users, the DRM restrictions mean you can’t play YouTube audio in the background or when your device screen is off. This encourages free users to upgrade to the paid Premium service for full access.
While encryption protects copyright holders, it also limits consumer rights and fair use of content. However, downloading from unofficial sources raises ethical concerns and may violate YouTube’s terms of service.
According to a Reddit discussion (source), some suspect that YouTube may increase DRM for smaller channels in the future to prevent unauthorized downloading.
Advertising Model
YouTube’s core business model revolves around monetizing videos through advertisements. When a video plays, ads will play before, during, or after the content. This generates revenue for YouTube and video creators. As a result, YouTube implements restrictions to maximize ad views and prevent activities that circumvent ads.
According to YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines, they restrict using YouTube content in ways that limit a viewer’s exposure to ads. This includes downloading, re-hosting, or playing videos outside of the YouTube platform. These restrictions allow YouTube to show more ads, and generate more revenue from advertisers.
YouTube also prohibits re-using content in unsupported players or environments with limited ad capabilities. This ensures their advertising partners have access to robust measurement, reporting, and ad delivery tools. Overall, YouTube’s focus is keeping viewers within their ecosystem to maximize monetization.
How YouTube Music Works
YouTube Music is YouTube’s music streaming subscription service. It offers both a free, ad-supported tier and a paid, ad-free subscription tier called YouTube Music Premium.
The free version of YouTube Music allows you to stream music and watch music videos with advertisements. However, you cannot download songs for offline listening or listen to music in the background with the screen off.
YouTube Music Premium provides an ad-free listening experience. Subscribers can stream music videos and albums uninterrupted. Premium also allows users to save songs, albums, and playlists for offline listening when an internet connection is unavailable (https://music.youtube.com/). Downloads can be accessed through the YouTube Music app on mobile devices or desktop.
In addition, YouTube Music Premium subscribers can play music in the background, allowing you to listen while using other apps or when your device is locked. This feature is not available for free users (https://www.youtube.com/musicpremium).
So in summary, YouTube Music Premium provides an ad-free, uninterrupted listening experience with offline support, which addresses the limitations of the free tier.
Workarounds
Despite YouTube’s restrictions, there are some browser extensions and third party apps that allow users to download music from YouTube anyway. However, it’s important to carefully consider the legal and ethical implications of using these questionable methods.
Some popular browser extensions like KeepVid and FLVTO make it easy to download YouTube videos, including just the audio track, and convert them to MP3 format. There are also desktop applications like 4K YouTube to MP3 that serve the same purpose. While convenient, these tools likely violate YouTube’s Terms of Service and facilitate copyright infringement.
The legality of these downloader tools is murky. On one hand, simply downloading a video for personal use may qualify as fair use in some countries. However, actively circumventing DRM copy protection is often prohibited. YouTube contends that downloading its content results in lost ad revenue, and record labels argue it hurts sales. Ethically, some believe that respecting content owners’ distribution wishes is the right thing to do.
In summary, while it’s technically possible to download music from YouTube through unofficial software, the practice raises legal concerns and undermines the platform’s business model. There are better options for obtaining music legally.
Premium Music Services
Major on-demand music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music fully license songs from record labels and publishers, allowing unrestricted streaming and downloading for paid subscribers. Services like Spotify and Apple Music charge a monthly subscription fee (usually $9.99 per month) to access their full catalogs of over 70 million songs without restrictions. These premium services also offer features like higher audio quality, offline listening, and personalized recommendations. Unlike YouTube, the songs on premium services are licensed for full, uninterrupted playback without ads.
Compared to YouTube, premium music services like Spotify and Apple Music offer a more robust music listening experience optimized for audio quality and music discovery. However, they require a paid subscription, while basic YouTube access is free. Overall, premium music streaming provides a legal and high-quality alternative for enjoying music without YouTube’s playback restrictions.
Fair Use
Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows for limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder, typically for purposes such as education, commentary, criticism, parody, news reporting, and research. Under fair use, short portions of copyrighted songs may be used without permission for purposes such as commentary or education. For example, a music critic may excerpt a few seconds of a song in a review to analyze the melody. Or a music teacher may play a brief clip of a song in class when teaching musical concepts or song structure. According to copyright experts, uses like these likely qualify as fair use since they are transformative in nature and do not negatively impact the market value of the original work.
YouTube’s fair use policy states that “Some activities that may qualify as fair use include criticism, commentary, and news reporting.” However, determinations of fair use are made on a case by case basis and consider factors like the amount copied, the purpose of the use, and its effect on the market for the original work. Simply reposting an entire copyrighted song on YouTube without additional commentary or context would not qualify as fair use.
Sources:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9783148?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/policies/copyright/
Ethical Considerations
There is an ongoing ethical debate around circumventing copy protection to access copyrighted content without paying. On one hand, some argue it is unethical because it deprives content creators of compensation for their work. Many YouTube videos feature copyrighted music, and downloading these videos to extract the audio means the musicians, songwriters and rights holders don’t get royalties they are owed.
However, others contend that as long as the use is non-commercial and for personal enjoyment, no real harm is done. They point out that most downloaders would not purchase the content anyway, so the copyright holders are not actually losing money. There is also a question of whether restrictive DRM goes too far in limiting consumer rights.
Ultimately there are good ethical points on both sides. While downloading copyrighted material for free is technically illegal in many cases, the ethics depend on the specific circumstances and usage. There are certainly situations where it seems more justified than others. But it is a complex issue with reasonable arguments on both sides.
Sources:
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-ethical-to-download-music-or-video-games-you-already-bought-in-disk-form-Is-it-legal
The Future
Copyright laws around music streaming are likely to continue evolving in the coming years. As new technologies emerge, both copyright holders and platforms will need to adapt. One potential change is more flexible rules around music playback in streaming services.
Some experts predict copyright collectives will play an expanded role in the future of music streaming. As E. Priest discusses, collectives that handle compulsory licensing for streaming seem firmly established thanks to recent laws like the Music Modernization Act [1]. These collectives could advocate for updated terms that give users more playback flexibility.
The music streaming market is projected to continue growing rapidly, potentially reaching $35 billion by 2028 according to one forecast [2]. As the market expands,copyright holders may become more open to new licensing models that increase access and playback options for consumers. This could mean loosening restrictions on downloading, sharing, and remixing streamed music.
Overall, the future of music streaming seems likely to involve updated copyright terms that balance consumer flexibility with artist compensation. With the right licensing models, streaming could move beyond just playback toward enabling innovative new engagement with music.