YouTube Music as a desktop app on Mac and Windows
Google documents YouTube Music on computers as a website in Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, with no Mac or Windows download. A Pake app gives it its own icon and can keep running after you close the window, but Google may refuse its sign-in inside an app window, so test that first.
What Google and the browsers offer
YouTube Music Help says YouTube Music is available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge for computers and does not describe a desktop download. The native apps Google points to are for mobile, on the App Store and Google Play.
The desktop option Google documents is the Chrome web app: open music.youtube.com in Chrome, choose the More icon, Cast, Save, and Share, then Install YouTube Music. Google says it opens with one click and supports keyboard shortcuts to play, pause or skip songs. It still belongs to Chrome, and you remove it through Chrome's web app settings.
Other browsers can do the same for any site. Edge installs it from Settings and more …, More tools, Apps, Install this site as an app, and can pin it to the taskbar from edge://apps. On macOS Sonoma 14 or later, Safari saves it with File, Add to Dock. Apple says that web app shares no cookies or website data with Safari, so expect to sign in again.
Test the sign-in before anything else
For music, the account matters more than the window, because your library, playlists and recommendations live in it. Google's OAuth policy says a developer must not direct a Google OAuth 2.0 authorization request to an embedded user-agent, and its error reference describes the disallowed_useragent error for embedded views, naming WKWebView, the view Pake apps use on a Mac. The policy is about embedded browsers in general, not about one engine, and changing the user agent string does not turn a refusal into a permission.
Pake's own FAQ says the same in plain terms: some providers, Google among them, block sign-in inside embedded web views like the one Pake apps use. Whether an account gets through on a given system is something to find out rather than assume, and the next section is cheap to try. If Google refuses, use the browser install above, and the sign-in guide explains the details.
Make it in Pake
YouTube Music is in the gallery under Media. Its page does not show Window and options are tuned, so it starts from Pake's defaults. On the Create tab, type its name into Search apps or paste a web address, or paste https://music.youtube.com. If the tile is missing, paste the address instead. Click Create App. Every option is described in Create an app.
Open the app and try to sign in right away. On Windows, if the sign-in page opens a pop-up that goes nowhere, turn on Open new windows in the app under Behavior through Edit in My Apps. On a Mac, sign-in other than Sign in with Apple already runs in the app's own window, so the option does not change it. Keep Incognito off, because Incognito keeps no sign-ins or cookies, and after a successful sign-in quit the app and open it again to confirm it remembered you. On a Mac, Pake apps cannot use passkeys or Touch ID sign-in, according to the Pake CLI FAQ, so a Google account that depends on a passkey needs its password and second step instead.
Keep the music playing after you close the window
The option that matters most for music is Hide on close, which keeps the app running when you close its window. It is on by default on Mac and off on Windows, where turning it on also adds the tray icon. On Mac, turn on Menu bar icon if you want an icon there too. You change either later from My Apps with Edit and Save Changes.
Closing a window and quitting an app are different things. With Hide on close on, the close button only hides the window, so the app and whatever it is playing carry on. Quitting stops it: on a Mac choose Quit from the app's menu, and on Windows look in the tray, where the hidden app lives. The Cmd + W or Ctrl + W shortcut from the shortcut list hides the window without quitting. If you want the close button to tuck the window away and keep the app running, this is the setting to use. If you want the close button to end the sound, leave it off.
Test playback and media keys
Google documents playback shortcuts only for its Chrome web app, so check them in your own app instead of assuming. Play a song, try the controls on the page, your keyboard and any media keys, then close the window and listen. Hide on close keeps the app running, and whether the site keeps playing in a hidden window is the site's decision, so confirm it once.
One more Google detail: when you cast from the Chrome web app, Google says playback stops if you exit or stop the song in the web app, while for Premium members casting continues even if they close the web app. That describes casting from Google's own web app, not a Pake window, so test casting separately if you use it.
When a Chrome, Edge or Safari app is the better choice
Use the browser install if Google refuses the sign-in in Pake, or if you rely on a passkey, or if you want the keyboard shortcuts Google documents. The Chrome web app is the only route in this post where Google itself documents shortcuts and one-click launch. Use Safari's Add to Dock if you are on a Mac and want the least setup, and accept a fresh sign-in.
A Pake app earns its place when sign-in works for you and you want these specifics: a window and icon that are separate from your browser, the same app on Mac and Windows, and Hide on close with a menu bar or tray icon. If music is only something you play occasionally, a pinned browser tab does the same job.
What updates and what does not
The window loads the live site, so changes on music.youtube.com appear the next time the page loads, with nothing to reinstall. What Pake updates is the app around the page: in My Apps, Update available means a newer Pake runtime, and Update keeps the name, icon and sign-ins. See Updates. If you run the same site under two accounts, see Two accounts on one website. The Pake guide to DeepSeek walks through the same build for another site.
Build it with the CLI
After setting up the CLI:
pake https://music.youtube.com --name YouTubeMusic--hide-on-close is on by default on macOS and off on Windows and Linux, so add it on those systems to keep the app running after you close the window, and add --show-system-tray for a tray icon. See the CLI options.
FAQ
Will music keep playing when I close the window?
Only if Hide on close is on, and then only if the site keeps playing in the hidden window. Test it once with a song, because the site decides.
Can I sign in with my Google account?
Maybe. Google's policy does not allow its sign-in in embedded web views, and Pake apps are embedded web views, so try it before you rely on it. If it fails, use Chrome's or Edge's app install.
Does it need Chrome installed?
No. A Pake app uses the system web view, WKWebView on a Mac and WebView2 on Windows, and does not depend on your browser.