How to Play Music on YouTube in Background without YouTube Premium (for only Xiaomi smartphones)

In this article I want to tell you how you can listen to music on YouTube in the background without subscribing to YouTube Premium. Please note that this method works only on Xiaomi smartphones, thanks to built-in Music app from Xiaomi.

Let’s get started!

A few months ago, authorization via YouTube was added to Music app from Xiaomi. In simple words, the entire YouTube video and music database has been fully added to Music app on Xiaomi smartphones.

So if you log in Music app via your YouTube account on Xiaomi smartphone, you can play videos and listen to music in the background as if you had a YouTube Premium subscription.

Many people don’t want to pay money for YouTube Premium subscription. Yes, the subscription offers several benefits, such as listening to and watching videos in the background, and no ads. However, if you do not care about ads but want to listen to music in the background, then use the following method.

Step-by-step Tutorial

1. Open Music app on your Xiaomi smartphone.

2. Click on “Watch” in the bottom right corner.

3. Then enter Gmail address you’re using to watch YouTube videos.

4. Now, you can see YouTube logo at the top, and a search field in the center. You can use the search field to find the song or podcast you want to listen to.

5. Once you have selected and started the music, you can minimize the application.

That’s all! Now you can listen to music on YouTube in the background. You can use the floating playback menu in the bottom right corner to play and stop music, switch tracks or close music playback in the background.

It is not working?

If you can’t log in to your YouTube account in Music app on your Xiaomi smartphone, then try changing the region in Settings> Advanced Settings> Region. Try to select, for example, India or United States.

Then reopen Music app, click Watch, log in to your Google Account and you can listen to music on YouTube in the background.

To be honest, I highly doubt that this method to listen to music on YouTube in the background on Xiaomi smartphones will work for a long time. It’s likely to be closed soon.

It is not profitable for Google to provide users of Xiaomi smartphones with one of the main advantages of YouTube Premium subscription for free. Many people will start unsubscribing from YouTube Premium, so Google will have to close YouTube access to Music app on Xiaomi smartphones.

As long as it’s possible, take advantage of it!