This is a basic way to play music from YouTube from your terminal.

Terminal Command (One-Liner)

Install tools once:

brew install yt-dlp mpv

Play a track by search term:

mpv --no-video --volume=100 "$(yt-dlp -f 'bestaudio' --get-url --no-playlist 'ytsearch1:Nujabes Aruarian Dance' | head -n 1)"

What this does:

1. yt-dlp searches YouTube and resolves the best audio stream URL
2. mpv plays that URL as audio only

To play something else, change the text inside ytsearch1:....

Make it reusable with a tiny script

Create ytmusic:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Usage: ytmusic <search terms>"
  exit 1
fi

query="$*"
url="$(yt-dlp -f 'bestaudio' --get-url --no-playlist "ytsearch1:${query}" | head -n 1)"

if [ -z "$url" ]; then
  echo "No result found for: $query"
  exit 1
fi

mpv --no-video --volume=100 "$url"

Make it executable:

chmod +x ytmusic

Run it:

./ytmusic nujabes aruarian dance
./ytmusic aphex twin xtal

Does this always avoid ads?

You do not need YouTube Premium for this method.

Ad behavior can still vary by video, region, account state, and YouTube policy changes. In practice, these flows are often lighter than the normal YouTube watch page, but nothing here guarantees zero ads forever.

Quick troubleshooting

If mpv opens but you hear nothing, make sure your command includes -f 'bestaudio':

mpv --no-video --volume=100 "$(yt-dlp -f 'bestaudio' --get-url --no-playlist 'ytsearch1:YOUR SEARCH HERE' | head -n 1)"

The key part is -f 'bestaudio'.