You enjoy watching and listening to music videos on YouTube. If only there was a way to listen to the audio portion offline. If you have the right tools, you can download youtube as mp3’s. Certain websites, software, and browser extensions can strip out the audio portion of any YouTube video and convert it to an MP3 file, which you can then save to your computer or mobile device.
We’ve previously covered how to download YouTube content as video files. Here, I’ll focus on the task of downloading them as audio files.
Before diving in, though, let’s get one thorny issue out of the way. Is this type of conversion and download legal? That depends on the video. You can certainly convert and download your own personal YouTube videos, as well as public domain and non-copyrighted videos; just search YouTube for “public domain” and “non-copyrighted” content. But you can’t legally convert and download copyrighted videos without the owner’s permission.
As a word of warning, a spokesperson for Google sent me the following statement: “Our Terms of Service prohibit the downloading or copying of videos on YouTube without explicit consent from the copyright holder. Once notified of an infringing tool or service that allows the downloading of a YouTube video without permission from the content owner we take appropriate action.”
With those caveats in mind, let’s check out some ways to convert the right videos to audios.
YouTubeMP3.is
Quick and convenient, YouTubeMP3.is is a website where you can copy and paste the URL of the YouTube video you want to convert. Just add the link, click on the Download button, and the file conversion kicks off. While the video is being converted and downloaded, you can convert another file if you wish. From there, listen to the file on your PC via your favorite music player and/or copy it to your mobile device. The file downloads can take awhile as the conversion is done in real time second by second, but the results are worth the wait.
GenYouTube
Another user-friendly website, GenYouTube converts YouTube videos to MP3s as well as other formats for audio and video. Copy and paste the link to a YouTube video in the search field. GenYouTube starts playing the video. You then select the format for the audio file, such as MP3 or M4A. Download the file and you can play it on your PC and then copy or sync it to your mobile device.GenYouTube has a couple of other tricks up its sleeve. If you’re watching a video on YouTube, simply add the word gen to the video link, as in https://www.genyoutube.com/watch?v=qZXdZwsx64I, and you’re swept away to the GenYouTube site to download the video. You can also tap into the service by installing browser extensions in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.