orbutton
What orbutton actually is
A free web app that crossfades a pasted YouTube playlist into one continuous mix -- built as an open alternative to Musi and to YouTube Music's missing crossfade, plus the honest reasoning behind how it's built, so you know exactly what you're getting.
The short version
orbutton is a free, no-account, browser-based player. Paste a YouTube playlist link or individual video links, and it plays them back-to-back with an adjustable crossfade -- you choose the exact percentage of the current track where the next one fades in, plus how long the overlap lasts. On top of that: drag-and-drop queue reordering, shuffle, independent repeat-all/repeat-one, a configurable start-offset that skips the first 0–25% of each track, and a sleep timer.
It runs entirely through YouTube's own official IFrame Player API and Data API v3 -- nothing is scraped, downloaded, or extracted. Every track plays exactly the way it would on youtube.com itself, just with a custom interface and custom timing logic layered on top.
Playlist imports run through orbutton's own shared, free Data API v3 connection by default -- no account, no key, no setup. That shared daily quota is more than enough for ordinary use; on the rare day it runs out, orbutton tells you plainly and lets you drop in your own free Google API key (two minutes to generate), which removes the shared limit entirely and is stored only in your own browser.
The gap it fills
YouTube Music has no crossfade at all -- not even on Premium. It's an open feature request on Google's own support forums, unresolved for years. A handful of browser extensions attempt the same crossfade idea orbutton does, but the most visible one on the Chrome Web Store sits around a 2.7-star rating with a small user base, and its own description admits playback breaks once the tab is minimized. orbutton exists to actually deliver the thing people keep asking YouTube Music for and keep getting a mediocre extension for instead: free, reliable, adjustable crossfade.
How it compares
What it does not do
orbutton does not strip, block, or interfere with YouTube's own advertisements -- doing so would violate YouTube's API Developer Policies, and orbutton is built to stay strictly inside official, permitted use of the YouTube IFrame Player API and Data API v3. Want ad-free listening? Use your own YouTube Premium account or a general-purpose ad-blocker extension -- both work the same way they would on youtube.com, independently of orbutton. orbutton also never downloads, extracts, caches, or lets you save any audio or video file -- every track plays live through YouTube's own player, the same act as visiting youtube.com, just with a custom interface and custom playback timing on top.
Questions people actually ask
Does YouTube Music have a crossfade feature?
No. YouTube Music only offers basic gapless playback, and only on Premium -- there's no adjustable crossfade at any tier, and it's an unresolved feature request on Google's own forums. orbutton adds free, adjustable crossfade on top of the same catalog.
Why was Musi removed from the App Store?
Musi, a popular free YouTube-wrapper app with crossfade and background playback, was removed from the App Store in 2024 after YouTube found it used unofficial, private API endpoints and sold advertising on screens whose only content was a YouTube video -- both violations of YouTube's API Terms of Service. In August 2026, Sony Music and Universal Music filed a copyright lawsuit against Musi in Canada (via IFPI and Music Canada), alleging it circumvents YouTube's technical protections and pays artists no royalties while charging users through ads and subscriptions; the case is ongoing. orbutton is built specifically to avoid the original problems: official APIs only, no advertising of its own.
Are YouTube-based music apps like this safe and legal to use?
It depends entirely on which APIs the app uses. Scraping, private endpoints, or audio extraction put an app outside YouTube's terms and at real legal/access risk, as happened to Musi and to several stream-ripping services. orbutton only uses the official, documented IFrame Player API and Data API v3.
Does orbutton remove or block YouTube's ads?
No -- that's against YouTube's Developer Policies, and orbutton is built to stay compliant. Videos play through YouTube's own player and carry YouTube's own ads. For ad-free listening, use YouTube Premium or your own browser ad-blocker extension.
Can YouTube Music or a Musi-style app replace what orbutton does?
YouTube Music has no crossfade; Musi-style wrapper apps that had it have a track record of getting shut down for using unofficial access. orbutton offers free crossfade, queue control, shuffle, and repeat modes while staying entirely inside YouTube's permitted API surface.