spotdl url - get user friendly link instead of direct download

[infoshare3468]

Requested Feature

Trying to export a list of user friendly youtube-music links from a spotify playlist. The URL option does give a list of DIRECT download links, but they are not user friendly links.

example looking for: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=eLhSxOAaWmg

not looking for:
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/expire/1751160488/ei/SEJgaNWJDfC7kucPzseiiQ8/ip/71.74.96.182/id/82a8a58495348ca4/itag/234/source/youtube/requiressl/yes/r
atebypass/yes/pfa/1/goi/133/sgoap/clen%3D2819938%3Bdur%3D174.093%3Bgir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D140%3Blmt%3D1709306137962167/rqh/1/hls_chunk_host/rr4---sn-p5qlsnrr.googlevideo.com/xpc/EgVo2a
DSNQ%3D%3D/met/1751138888,/mh/R0/mm/31,26/mn/sn-p5qlsnrr,sn-vgqsrnzr/ms/au,onr/mv/m/mvi/4/pl/19/rms/au,au/gcr/us/initcwndbps/3741250/bui/AY1jyLPRbdCyZMegsamxXaIXHtH15F-AzYp3newptF-
JrQnJPZn2PNttaHoswV9PcYyik_nJa99zNE31/spc/l3OVKfGJCVz9i7XgLYZCexfofsxKIcKUHIQVlypUgP6QcHLirv_BCg/vprv/1/playlist_type/DVR/dover/13/txp/4432434/mt/1751138486/fvip/1/short_key/1/keep
alive/yes/sparams/expire,ei,ip,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,pfa,goi,sgoap,rqh,xpc,gcr,bui,spc,vprv,playlist_type/sig/AJfQdSswRAIgdSOeVvnn8Uh7O5M9Usek89adZm7-tGavDjiKgUhaS-E
CIHgIS7JaN54OKmgaLDIZZHD4FdKVL84br5K8K2ku4BaQ/lsparams/hls_chunk_host,met,mh,mm,mn,ms,mv,mvi,pl,rms,initcwndbps/lsig/APaTxxMwRQIhAIYdsTGUUuAFJ37Eb2Amqle3WG1rSlxg5Zsc1nfo1xWtAiBhYHf
nnPaLEtn40tgN2NQr1fo6dM5JtThuedLxcHBSaA%3D%3D/playlist/index.m3u8

The closest feature request found while searching was "spotdl url - get friendly link instead of direct download #2132
" in which Silverarmor closed on Jan 16th, but did not address the request fully.

Possible implementation

Add option: spotdl url-friendly that would return the list of Youtube Music (or wtv provider) original links instead of the actual direct download.

It looks like the converted links are already addressed internally as they are output during error output.
example error output including the user friendly urls:

"generated an exception: YT-DLP download error - https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7cmBr8mcUDA"

[Kyo04200201]

There are chances that spotdl searches the wrong version of songs (e.g. return someone's cover, instead of the original). The program doesn't know what URL the user truly wanted, thus return URLs that may not be wanted.
Hence, I am not sure if this is a feature needed for the majority.

[infoshare3468]

Youtube Music is normally great at relating searches to the best song match. Unless it's a odd song, it will hit perfectly most of the time. The entire spotDL premise relating between providers is that the translation could be incorrect, but is at least a best effort.

If the "URL" option returns the actual song link, correct or not... what would keep the user friendly URL from being returned as well using "URL-FRIENDLY"? Wouldn't they both be the wrong returned song?

It's a great feature for universal compatibility (import/export via text file), and the link appears to be available in the app already.

[Silverarmor]

I'll leave this one open if anyone wants to contribute.

[KaliDeveIoper]

Hi! I’d like to work on this issue and would be happy to submit a PR to add the function. Please let me know if it’s available. Thank you!

[Silverarmor]

Hi! I’d like to work on this issue and would be happy to submit a PR to add the function. Please let me know if it’s available. Thank you!

Yep! Thanks for your time, feel free to open a PR

[Silverarmor]

I'm updating this to a bug. spotdl url should be returning a youtube link rather than the download object link as per original intent #1710