YouTube Music Remover

YouTube Music Remover is a Manifest V3 browser extension for YouTube that separates vocals and speech from background music.

The current codebase supports two provider pipelines:

• direct_link: the provider receives the YouTube link and processes it remotely
• upload_audio: the extension downloads the audio, splits it into chunks, uploads the chunks, and streams cleaned results progressively

Current providers:

• SoundBoost -> direct_link
• Remove Music -> upload_audio

The extension includes English and Arabic support, an in-player action button, auto-start, cached results, and playback controls that let the user decide whether to keep the original video audio playing while upload-based processing runs.

Current Version

The repository currently matches extension version 4.3.0 from manifest.json.

Features

• In-player YouTube control for starting or stopping the music-removal flow
• Two explicit provider pipelines for current and future integrations
• Chunked upload pipeline for providers that need local audio uploads
• Direct-link pipeline for providers that process from the YouTube URL
• Progressive playback for chunked results when ready
• Auto-start on page load
• Ask-before-starting playback behavior
• English and Arabic UI with RTL support
• Cached cleaned-audio result URLs for faster reuse

Provider Behavior

Direct-link providers

Direct-link providers process the video from its original YouTube URL.

• Chunk Duration is disabled
• A warning is shown in the popup because very long videos may take longer
• The playback-behavior preference is still available

Upload-audio providers

Upload-audio providers require the extension to download and split audio locally before sending it to the provider.

• Chunk Duration is enabled
• Playback can begin progressively as chunks become ready
• The same playback-behavior preference remains available

How It Works

Direct-link flow

1. Open a YouTube watch page
2. Click the extension button in the player, or enable auto-start
3. The provider imports the YouTube URL remotely
4. The extension polls provider status
5. The cleaned vocals URL is streamed back into the player

Upload-audio flow

1. Open a YouTube watch page
2. Click the extension button in the player, or enable auto-start
3. The extension downloads the audio source
4. Audio is split into chunks according to Chunk Duration
5. Chunks are uploaded and processed in parallel
6. Cleaned chunks are streamed back progressively and synced to the video

Installation

Load unpacked

1. Download or clone this repository
2. Open chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode
4. Click Load unpacked
5. Select the project folder

The extension is intended for Chromium-based browsers that support Manifest V3 and the required Chrome extension APIs.

Settings

The popup currently exposes:

• Extension Enabled
• Auto-Start on Page Load
• Language
• Provider
• Chunk Duration
• Ask Before Starting

Important behavior:

• Chunk Duration is available only for upload-audio providers
• Ask Before Starting remains available for both provider types
• Play Immediately is chosen through the in-player prompt rather than the popup

Project Structure

youtube-music-remover/
|-- _locales/
|-- icons/
|-- background.js
|-- content-ui-helpers.js
|-- content.js
|-- i18n.js
|-- manifest.json
|-- offscreen.html
|-- popup.html
|-- popup.js
|-- provider-catalog.js
`-- styles.css

Key files:

• provider-catalog.js: shared provider definitions and capability metadata
• background.js: provider orchestration, caching, download/upload handling, and job lifecycle
• content.js: player UI, prompt behavior, playback sync, and streaming
• popup.js: settings UI and provider-aware controls
• i18n.js: runtime translations shared across popup, content, and background
• _locales/: Chrome extension locale resources

Localization

The extension currently supports:

• English
• Arabic

Localization is split into two layers:

• Chrome locale metadata in _locales/
• shared runtime strings in i18n.js

If you add new user-facing text, update both places when needed so popup text, in-player text, and extension metadata stay aligned.

Development Notes

• The codebase is organized around provider capabilities rather than one-off provider branches
• New providers should be added through provider-catalog.js first
• Direct-link and upload-audio providers should keep using the explicit pipeline split already in the background worker
• Manual verification on real YouTube pages is important for UI placement, provider flow, and playback timing

Contributing

Contribution guidance lives in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.