I Like Listening to Music on YouTube: This Is the Trick I Use to Jam Out While the Screen's Turned Off

If you want to listen to music on YouTube with your phone screen off, you can try out several tricks, but this is the easiest and most practical. Even though I pay for Spotify Premium, I frequently go over to YouTube for the music videos, podcasts that interest me, and random clips that I want to listen to. Unless you pay for YouTube Premium, the app mutes the sound when you turn off the screen or use YouTube in the background.

This method allows you to listen to YouTube videos even when the screen is off or when you have another app open. It's simple and effective. There are other options, but I've been using this alternative for several years and it's never failed me.

All you have to do is install the Brave browser. I use it on Android, but it’s also available for iOS. You can find it for free on the Play Store or the App Store.

Unlike Chrome or other browsers, Brave allows you to use YouTube and other services in the background. To enable this option, go to Settings > Multimedia > Background play. And that’s it. Once this option is enabled, you can go directly to YouTube, turn off the screen, and the video will continue playing.

After downloading this browser, you can search YouTube and play the video you want, and that’s it. If you want to stop the video, use the notification bar.

You can also create playlists on YouTube and play them on Brave. This way, you have a list of songs for practical reasons without paying for a music service. YouTube has a vast repertoire of music, so your playlist could last for hours.

Since Brave’s developers updated the browser in 2017, I’ve used it when I don’t want to play songs on Spotify. On iOS, it works offline and even with a floating window. Notably, Chrome doesn’t let you listen to music on YouTube in the background by default. However, it's understandable. Google wants you to pay for that YouTube Premium.

With browsers like Firefox and Chrome, it’s also possible to use YouTube with the screen off, but it doesn’t work well and isn’t immediate. With Brave, it does. All you have to do is play the video you want. If you like to listen to music from YouTube on your phone and want it in the background all the time, give this trick a shot.

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