YouTube to MP3 Converter
YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the Web, and a very useful one. You can find a video or audio file of almost any song or subject on YouTube, and upload your own creations to share with the world. But by design, you can only play these files in your Web browser. Here's how to convert the audio portion of a YouTube video into MP3 format...
How to Convert Youtube to MP3
You can't directly download a file from YouTube and save it on your hard drive, or email it as an attachment, or anything else. Many people would like to do these things and so, of course, helpful programmers have developed applications that let you capture YouTube content. That process involves converting YouTube audio content to MP3 format.
What you see and hear on YouTube is in Shockwave format, a type of multimedia designed for streaming playback over the Internet. Shockwave files normally cannot be downloaded and played on your computer. So in order to do so you have to convert the stream of Shockwave data into some other file format. MP3 is the standard format for audio files.
Why would you want to do that? Well suppose you found a video on Youtube with a really cool soundtrack, and you wanted to download just the music, without the video. A Youtube to MP3 converter pulls in the Shockwave data, sucks out the audio portion, and saves it as an MP3 file that can be played on your computer, MP3 player or mobile phone. Might even be handy as a ringtone…
A program for Windows called Free YouTube to MP3 Converter does exactly what its name says. It will download a single YouTube file or multiple files in a playlist. It will even download all the "video responses" posted by other users in response to a given YouTube video. It retains the original file name of the video, unlike some converters that want to save everything as VIDEO.MP3 or some other generic, unhelpful name.
If you have a Mac or Linux computer, or you just prefer a web-based application, VidToMP3.com does the conversion online; you needn't download or install any software. Instead, you just copy the URL of the desired video from your browser's address bar window, paste it into a box on the VidToMP3 site, wait a bit, and download the converted file when it's finished. This site also offers a toolbar you can install into your browser that makes the conversion and downloading process even easier.
Here's one more way to rip the audio from a YouTube video as an MP3 file. Download the free Audacity sound editor software for Windows, Mac or Linux. Audacity has the ability to capture and record the audio stream that's currently playing on your computer, and convert it to a variety of different formats. In a nutshell, here's what you'll need to do.
- Open Youtube and find the desired video
- Start Audacity on your computer
- Change the dropdown from "Line In" to "What You Hear"
- Press the Record button to start recording
- Begin playing the Youtube video
- Press the Stop button in Audacity when the video finishes
- Edit the audio clip as desired
- Click File, then "Export as MP3"
Post a comment or question below, if you've used one of the above converters, or if you know of another that works well…
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Posted by Bob Rankin on January 8, 2010 09:08 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- YouTube to MP3 Converter (Posted: January 8, 2010 09:08 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/youtube_to_mp3_converter.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "YouTube to MP3 Converter"
(See all 14 comments for this article.)Posted by:
cy9
13 Jan 2010
this works well for me: http://www.dirpy.com/
Posted by:
72andcounting
13 Jan 2010
If I wish to record a music track from a video, I use the Easy Audio Capture, provided in Windows 7 (gadgets). I have had no problem doing it. Many people don't know about it. The Easy Audio Capture must be set up correctly to perform the task and easy to figure out.
Posted by:
Thim
13 Jan 2010
kickyoutube.com is very easy, and offers several formats for you to choose from.
Posted by:
Stan
13 Jan 2010
The latest version of Real Player has the ability to download complete videos from YouTube and other streaming sites. When installed, a mouseover the video screen causes a tab to pop up at the top of the frame, with the message "Download this video".
It won't download protected videos - such as the Daily Show though.
Posted by:
Robert
13 Jan 2010
Dear Bob!
Greetings from Austria (Europe).
I got very good results with the online conversion tool zamzar.com.
Best regards
Robert Friedbacher
Posted by:
Nate
13 Jan 2010
If you use Firefox, you can also install the DownloadHelper add-on. It downloads videos from numerous sites in flv format, and I think AVI is an option as well.
Posted by:
jw
13 Jan 2010
This works well if you use the Firefox browser.
Video DownloadHelper (firefox add-on)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
It can download, convert to other formats, etc. Works for video and audio from lots of different sites.
Posted by:
john
14 Jan 2010
I have Vista and I can't record what I hear using Audacity 1.3. When I look at the device toolbar, there is no option that says "What you hear." Where do I find that? Thanks.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This page may help with the missing "What You Hear" selection problem, which others have also experienced. http://gecsoft.blogspot.com/2008/07/audacity-missing-what-you-hear_11.html
Posted by:
John
15 Jan 2010
Thanks for the reference to gecsoft.blogspot.com. I still can't get Audacity to record what I hear.
I went to the Control Panel>Sound>recording and "Show Disabled devices" and "Show disconnected devices" are checked. But no icon named "Stereo Mix" appears. Just Microphone, Rear Mic, and Line in icons are in the box. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Quality might not be the greatest, but you could set it to Microphone, and record that way.
Posted by:
Norman
09 Feb 2010
Hi Bob, some time ago you published an article about Tunebite as Audio- & Video-Converter on your site. Today Tunebite is also a YouTube Downloader and YouTube to MP3 Converter in one Freeware Windows Software. As Downloader Tunebite can automatically download and convert in one step the YouTube Videos. This works also very well as Hulu Downloader. Even the live video streaming of Netflix movies can be captured with the new Tunebite. After downloading of Videos and Movies you can easily convert the FLV Flash Videos or RTMP-E videos to WMV, MP4, AVI or 3GP. May be you can give Tunebite a extra review.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I think you just did!