Archive your media library
YouTube offline (legally!), archiving music, managing your collection – ensuring your digital treasures are still there in 10 years.
Streaming sounds convenient – until your favorite movie disappears from the catalog, your Spotify account gets blocked, or a provider goes out of business. Personal collections are surprisingly relevant again in 2026. Here we show you how to systematically build and permanently secure your own media archive.
📋 Contents of this page
Media Centers: Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi
If you have a large collection (movies, series, music, photos), you don't want to browse through folders – you want to experience it like Netflix: covers, descriptions, recommendations, accessible from any device. That's what media centers are for.
Comparison of the three major solutions
Most profitable, easiest to use. Apps for all devices. Cloud components (some functions require internet/account). Free for basics, Plex Pass for pro features.
Open source, completely free, privacy-friendly (everything local). Slightly less polished than Plex, but functionally equivalent. First choice for privacy-conscious users.
Classic, very flexible with add-ons. Remote control, ideal for TV box setups (Raspberry Pi). A bit more tinkering, but endless customization.
Middle ground between Plex and Jellyfin. Premium features are paid. Less common, but stable.
What do you need for a media center?
- Server — an old PC, NAS (Synology, QNAP) or Raspberry Pi is sufficient
- Storage — hard drives of appropriate size, preferably mirrored (RAID)
- Software — install Plex, Jellyfin or Kodi
- Apps — on TV, tablet, mobile for playback
📊 Recommendation 2026
For maximum convenience and no privacy concerns: Plex. For those who prefer open source and want to keep all data local: Jellyfin. Both are very mature.
Organize your collection
A media library only becomes usable if it is structured. Media centers like Plex automatically recognize movies – if you name the files sensibly.
Recommended folder structure
/Movies
/Movie Title (Year)
Movie Title (Year).mp4
Movie Title (Year).srt
poster.jpg
/TV Shows
/Show Name
/Season 01
Show Name - S01E01 - Episode Title.mp4
Show Name - S01E02 - Episode Title.mp4
/Music
/Artist
/Album (Year)
01 - Song Title.mp3
02 - Song Title.mp3
Correctly tag metadata
- ID3 tags for music — Artist, Album, Title, Genre, Year, Cover
- NFO files for movies/series — XML descriptions with plot, cast, ratings
- Poster and fanart — automatically integrated by Plex/Jellyfin
- Consistent language — either all English or all German, not mixed
Tools for bulk organization
- tinyMediaManager — free, very powerful for movies/series
- MusicBrainz Picard — the standard for music tagging
- Mp3tag — proven classic for audio tagging
💡 Pro tip: If you're building a larger collection, it's worth dedicating a weekend to organizing it. Once cleanly structured, everything runs automatically – from playback to searching.
YouTube offline – what's legal?
YouTube is the world's largest video library. But videos constantly disappear: deleted, blocked, geo-restricted. If you want to keep content long-term, you need to save it. What is allowed?
✅ Clearly legal
- YouTube Premium offline function — built-in legal solution. Videos can be watched offline in the app, but not exported.
- Download your own videos — ones you have uploaded yourself.
- Videos with Creative Commons licenses — explicitly released for reuse by the uploader.
- Public domain content — old movies, audio recordings without copyright.
⚠️ Grey area: Private copy
German copyright law permits private copies of legally accessible sources, provided no copy protection is circumvented. YouTube technically does not have classic copy protection – but the terms of service prohibit downloads. A conflict between law and contract, not legally clarified.
❌ Clearly illegal
- Distributing or uploading downloaded videos
- Content from obviously illegal sources
- Commercial use without a license
- Copying DRM-protected content (e.g., YouTube movies for rent)
Practical recommendation
- YouTube Premium for comfortable, legal offline viewing — €12/month
- Secure open/free content — tutorials, public domain, your own videos
- For important content (educational videos, historical speeches, family videos): Better to save it than to be too late later
📺 Software Note
There are various tools on the market that can download YouTube videos. What is legal in an individual case depends on the content and use – a software itself does not make an action legal or illegal. When in doubt: stick to YouTube Premium.
Archive music
Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer – music streaming is convenient, but insecure. If a song disappears from the catalog (happens constantly due to licensing disputes), it's gone. Your own music collection is the only guarantee.
How to build a music collection in 2026?
- Digitize CDs — rip old collections, tag them, archive them
- Digitize vinyl — turntable with USB output or external A/D converter
- MP3 purchases — Bandcamp, 7digital, Qobuz offer DRM-free purchases
- Record streams — record streams as clean MP3 or FLAC
Which audio quality?
- MP3 320 kbit/s — Standard, small, "transparent" for most ears
- AAC 256 kbit/s — Apple standard, similar quality to MP3 320
- FLAC — lossless, larger files, audiophile quality
- WAV — like FLAC, but uncompressed, huge files — rather for editing
🟡 Recordify — Archive Streaming Music
Recordify is made for this very purpose: music streams (Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer) are recorded in real-time as clean MP3 files — complete with ID3 tags (artist, album, title, cover, year, genre).
The result: A growing local music collection that exists independently of streaming services. If your favorite Spotify album leaves the catalog — you'll still have it.
Manage your collection
- iTunes / Apple Music App — classic for Apple users
- foobar2000 — minimalist, highly configurable
- MusicBee — convenient, powerful library features
- Plex / Jellyfin Music function — like Spotify, but with your own files
- Roon — audiophile premium solution with excellent library logic
Backup strategy for your collection
A media collection of 5+ TB once built, a hard drive crash — and everything gone. Backups are not a luxury, but a must.
The 3-2-1 rule
- 3 copies of your data
- on 2 different media types (e.g., SSD + HDD or hard drive + cloud)
- of which 1 is off-site (external or cloud)
What are the options?
- External HDD — inexpensive, proven; update every 6 months
- NAS with RAID — automatic mirroring, good for continuous operation
- Cloud Backup — Backblaze, iDrive, Wasabi are affordable alternatives to Google Drive for huge amounts of data
- Tape (LTO) — for professionals, stable data archives for decades
💡 Practical Setup for a Home Media Library
Collection on NAS with RAID mirroring (copy 1+2). Plus regular backup to an external hard drive stored elsewhere (copy 3). Cloud optional for truly indispensable items (family videos, favorite concert recordings).
💡 Also important: Test backups regularly! A backup hard drive that has been in a drawer for 2 years could be defective without you knowing it. Once a year, do a restore test — restore a sample file and check if everything works.
Build Your Media Collection
Recordify archives music streams as a clean MP3 collection. MovieJack secures video content for your media library. Both are the cornerstone of an independent media archive.