Well, nothing ruins your mood more than ads showing up on YouTube while you are busting the rhymes from your favorite song. It is so frustrating, mostly when you can’t skip those excruciating insurance commercials. It is also why numerous people prefer listening to audio over watching through a whole YouTube music video riddled with ads. So, in this case, learning how to convert YouTube music to mp3 files can be helpful.
It’s not surprising why enormous people try to turn YouTube videos into mp3 files. After all, there are ample benefits that come with it. For example, mp3 files are smaller than video clips. So, if you do not wish to run out of storage space on your device, you would like to make your files smaller. Besides that, you need to connect to the reliable Internet to load YouTube videos with ease. In case your network connection is unstable or slow, the load time probably is significantly longer. Or, mp3 files are relatively small. So, you will not have loading issues when you want to listen to your most-liked music.
When you are busy doing your work, it is also simpler to listen to mp3 files instead of playing music videos on YouTube. Additionally, by converting a YouTube video to an mp3 file, you are making it portable. It’ll be easier for you to listen to your best-loved songs while moving from device to device. Moreover, since you are not concentrating on the video, you can watch where you are going while still enjoying music.
No doubt, there are many benefits you can get from learning how to download YouTube videos & convert them into mp3 files. In this article, I’ll discuss everything you need to know about the process.
Method 1: Using MediaHuman
There are plenty of full-fledged desktop apps designed to download YouTube music videos & convert them into mp3 files. Besides, one of the recommended programs for Windows, Ubuntu, & Mac is MediaHuman. Its features are also customizable according to how you wish to use it. You can opt for batch downloads & multiple link importation. So, you can acquire and convert some files at once. The process also gets faster when you use the ‘start to download automatically’ feature.
Moreover, it is also worth noting that MediaHuman can enable you to download an entire playlist. With this feature, you can quickly grab all the videos and convert them into separate mp3 files. The tool will monitor the playlist for new videos, downloading & converting them automatically. If you want, you can connect your iTunes account to MediaHuman. In this way, all the YouTube videos that you download and convert will automatically load to iTunes.
Method 2: Using Audacity
Audacity’s UI may not be as straightforward as MediaHuman’s, but it is a free audio recording and editing app that makes it interesting enough. It has app versions for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Audacity enables you to record the audio coming from your PC and save it as an mp3 file.
I will teach you how to use Audacity as a YouTube downloader. However, before you do that, you’ll need to configure some settings on the program to make sure that no other sounds will play on your device while you are recording. I have listed the instructions for Windows & macOS below.
Downloading and Converting YouTube Videos on Windows
1. After downloading & installing Audacity on your Windows computer, tap Edit, then select Preferences to access the settings.
2. Afterward, on the left, choose Devices.
3. Go to the Interface section at the top, now change the ‘Host: option’ feature to ‘Windows WASAPI.’
4. After that, go to the bottom and access the Recording section.
5. Ensure that the ‘Device: option’ feature is set to your output devices, such as your speakers or headphones.
6. Save the change you made by tapping, OK.
7. Now launch your web browser and load the YouTube video you want to convert to mp3.
Note: Make sure you’re ready to click the Record button on Audacity as soon as the video starts playing. Or, you can also hit the Record button before playing the video. However, you will have to deal with the dead air at the beginning of the recording.
8. When the video ends, tap the Stop button on Audacity.
9. You can easily save the recorded audio as an mp3 file by the below path:
File ->Export ->Export as MP3.
10. Now, store the mp3 file in any folder on your device.
Downloading and Converting YouTube Videos on macOS
1. After downloading & installing Audacity, you also need to get the installer for Soundflower. The latter will enable you to route the YouTube audio to Audacity.
Important: You need to open the Soundflower.pkg file to use the installer. If it doesn’t run, you need to go to System Preferences, then Security & Privacy. Afterward, the ‘blocked from loading’ message, choose Allow.
2. Go to the Apple menu, here choose System Preferences and tap Sound.
3. After that, on the Sound window, go to the Output tab, then ensure that the output device is set to Soundflower (2ch).
4. Then, go to the Preferences window and access the Devices tab on the left.
5. Go to the Recording section, then ensure that the ‘Device: option’ feature is set to Soundflower (2ch).
6. On the left, choose the Recording tab, then allow the Software Playthrough of Input option. This way, you’ll hear the video while it plays.
7. Save the changes by tapping OK.
8. Then, open the YouTube video you wish to convert through your web browser.
Important: As the video starts to play, tap the Record button on Audacity. You can opt to hit that button before playing the video on YouTube. Although, you will have to cut the dead air at the beginning of the audio recording.
9. When the video ends, tap the Stop button on Audacity.
10. Now save the recording as an mp3 file by following this path:
File ->Export ->Export as MP3.
After following these simple steps:
Firstly, check if the mp3 file plays without any problems.
If it does not, repeat Steps 1 to 3, but choose Internal Speakers instead of Soundflower (2ch).
Remember that it can be challenging to get rid of email alerts or error sounds, especially since they are mixed with the audio.
So, before you begin recording, you must ensure all other programs & sound notifications are disabled.
Method 3: Using VLC Media Player
Besides being a free & open-source media player, VLC is also incredibly versatile. You can use it for playing audio & video files. Additionally, it is also excellent for downloading YouTube videos & converting them into mp3 files. There are 2 phases in using this method: downloading a video and converting it to mp3.
Phase 1: Downloading a Video
1. At first, download & install the VLC Media Player.
2. When VLC is up and running, access its network options. For Windows, you need to tap Media, then choose Open Network Stream. If you are using macOS, tap File, then select Open Network.
3. Afterward, in the URL box under the Network tab, now paste the URL of the YouTube video you want to convert to mp3.
4. On Windows, you need to tap the Play button. On macOS, you must tap the Open button.
5. When the video starts playing, you should copy the streaming URL of the video.
Here are the simple instructions for Windows & macOS:
6. Windows: Tap Tools, then select Codec Information. Now go to the Location area at the bottom, and copy the long URL.
7. macOS: Tap Window, and select Media Information. Go to the General tab, and tap the Location text box, then copy the long URL.
Note: Since the URL is quite long, I suggest that you press Ctrl+A or Command+A before copying it.
8. After that, go back to your web browser, then paste the URL in the address bar.
9. Press Enter to access the video.
10. Right-click any area on the video and choose Save from the menu.
11. Now, save the mp4 video to your preferred location.
Phase 2: Converting the Video to MP3
1. Firstly, open VLC Media Player, then tap Menu.
2. Select Convert/Save from the list.
3. On the Open Media window, tap Add.
4. Afterward, select the video file you want to convert to mp3.
5. Tap Convert/Save.
6. On the Convert window, tap Browse and choose a destination folder for the converted file.
7. Tap Start to begin the conversion process.
Dear Readers, these are just some of the methods for converting YouTube videos into mp3 files. If you have any suggestions, so feel free to let us know in the comments section below.