Many people still rely on YouTube for video entertainment. The obvious reason is that it is accessible from any device with a browser and is free for all. And, a large part of this entertainment is in the form of music. But why waste so much bandwidth just to listen to YouTube music? Why not convert YouTube video to MP3 and save both bandwidths and have the ease of offline tracks for playing your favorite YouTube playlist. After all, YouTube doesn’t even play in the background and you need to stay on the screen to listen to your music continuously. Now, the question is: how to convert YouTube to MP3?
You don't have to worry because there are numerous offline and online tools available to help you convert YouTube videos to MP3. And in this article, we will show you the list of YouTube converters. There are primarily 3 types of such tools - desktop applications, mobile apps, and online YouTube to MP3 converters. Now, let’s check out the best YouTube to MP3 converters from each of these categories.
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Offline YouTube to MP3 converters for desktop/laptops
Let’s first check the YouTube to MP3 converters for desktops and laptops to see how to convert YouTube videos to mp3. They obviously have an edge of better processing power, making them much easier to quickly queue and download more MP3 files. Unlike online YouTube to MP3 converters, neither the file size restrictions nor the inability to download multiple songs simultaneously will restrict you.
Highlight: Batch and playlist download and turbo speed supported
StreamFab YouTube Downloader Pro, as a free YouTube to mp3 converter, helps you convert the whole YouTube playlist to MP3 in just a few clicks. It can download any YouTube video to MP3 no matter the original format it was uploaded in. It supports multiple bit rates for the audio (320/256/192/128/96 kbps) files it downloads and is quite popular for its faster-processing speed that beats its competitors by a wide margin, powered by the Turbo Speed function.
It supports video to MP3 conversion from more than 1000 websites. The files you download are downloaded along with their Metadata like the artist, cover art, genre, album, etc. On a multicore computer, the multiple cores can be utilized using the Turbo-Speed Download feature to fast forward the download of multiple songs consecutively.
An amazingly unique feature that comes with StreamFab YouTube to MP3 converter is its ability to subscribe and monitor a channel in order to automatically download new tracks that haven't been downloaded yet.
StreamFab YouTube to MP3 converter is a super-fast and easy-to-use tool to download MP3 from Youtube. It is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. Let’s see the steps on how you convert YouTube video to MP3 using this tool.
Step 1: Download, install and launch StreamFab YouTube Downloader. From the YouTube section, choose YouTube from the list of websites appearing or enter the URL or a search string in the address bar of Home.
Step 2: Designed with an inbuilt browser, this YouTube to MP3 converter allows you to browse YouTube without opening it on a browser. Then, you can search for the video you want to download and then click on the Down arrow button that appears on the left side of the video.
Step 3: Choose the audio quality in the Download dialogue box and click on the Download button. The file will be added to the Download queue and you can monitor its progress by clicking on the Downloading option in the left sidebar.
If you have the Paid version of the software, you can also download multiple files in parallel with the Turbo speed enabled. With the free version too you can add multiple files to the queue, but they will be downloaded sequentially.
Highlight: Free and open-source YouTube to MP3 converter
Your good old VLC Media Player is fully capable of converting YouTube videos to MP3. All you need to do is go to the Media option in the Menu bar, select “Open Network Stream…”, enter the URL of your YouTube video and select “Convert” from the dropdown present alongside the Play button.
In the next window that comes you need to select MP3 profile, select destination output directory, and click on Start to start the download. Being a free open source YouTube to mp3 application, it should be your first choice if you are not looking to download whole playlists but only single songs once in a while. This tool is not only useful for YouTube to MP3 conversion but is a full-fledged media player, format converter and even supports playback of online radio.
Android apps for YouTube to MP3 conversion
You won’t find YouTube to MP3 converter apps on Google Play Store because Google doesn’t allow any apps that support video download from video streaming websites, especially from its own property, YouTube.
However, such apps do exist and you will have to download the .apk for these files and install them directly. However, use your best judgment before installing these apps since they don’t go through the inspections and security checks that you will otherwise get from apps that are available through Google Play Store and might contain some malicious code or adware.
Highlight: Support other websites besides YouTube, including downloading Hollywood and Bollywood movies
VidMate supports YouTube to MP3 conversion right on your Android smartphone. You can select the quality of audio you want to download. The tags of the audio are also added to the MP3 file downloaded. It supports many more websites in addition to YouTube including TikTok, Instagram, 123Movies, etc. and also supports video and image downloads. However, there is no Turbo download speed here and you might have to wait a few seconds before it finishes YouTube to MP3 conversion and saves it on your device.
The app has its own support for offline media sharing of the files that you download using this app. One great feature of this app is that it has its own curated list of Hollywood and Bollywood movies along with Live TV and web series available for downloading at no charge at all.
Highlight: Support YouTube and other websites like Facebook as well
This YouTube to mp3 application supports YouTube to MP3 conversion as well as downloading of video and audio from a host of other websites including Facebook. It is another YouTube to MP3 converter Android app that boasts more than 40 million users. One good thing about this converter is that you don’t need to go to the specific video before getting the download button. You can start downloading directly from the search results. It supports video download as well as supports multiple video and audio qualities. However, the best audio quality you can download with this app is 128kbps.
However, this app has been reported to use invisible ads to inflate its earnings at the cost of utilizing user bandwidth and battery without their consent. Inside the app, there are ads that are non-intrusive.
Highlight: Download YouTube videos to MP3 completely free and fastly
As we mentioned above, DVDFab YouTube to MP3 is a good and fast speed free YouTube to MP3 Converter. The good news is that it has published its free Android app to use on mobile phones, pretty convenient as we watch videos and listen to music more frequently with our cellphones.
Download the Android app here, rest assured that it contains no virus or malicious code to ruin your phone. The process of downloading a YouTube video to MP3 is the same with the software, just find the video and select the audio quality and start the downloading process, batch downloading of a playlist is supported too.
Scan to download or youtube to mp3 app before you download it
Online YouTube to MP3 converters
Online YouTube to MP3 converters provide you the ease of converting your favorite YouTube videos to MP3 but with the limitation for customizations. Most of these online tools won’t allow you to select the quality nor will you be able to add multiple songs in the queue for download. And, many of these have the drawback of being filled with intrusive advertising which you can use an AdBlock to stop.
However, since they are web-based tools they have the advantages of being independent of the medium you are using to access the internet and no installation, REALLY GREAT for those who do such downloads only very rarely.
Highlight: Could save it on Dropbox but cannot customize the output
We are starting with the simplest tool out there for YouTube video to MP3 converter. YTMP3 Video Converter doesn’t have any customization option. All you need to do is copy the YouTube URL and enter it in the box given on this website. It will convert the YouTube Video to MP3 or MP4 and will give you the buttons to download the file locally or save it on Dropbox.
Highlight: Easy operation to download YouTube to MP3 128kbps files
While this online YouTube to MP3 converter mentions on its website that it supports 230kbps conversion, in reality it doesn’t work. However, you can easily download MP3 from YouTube videos after just entering the link in its Convert text box in 128kbps quality. You don’t need to navigate to any other page and after entering the correct YouTube URL, you just need to click on the Download MP3 button.
Highlight: Great website to download YouTube to MP3 320kbps files
If you have not guessed it yet, the 320 in the website name specifically stands for its ability to download 320kbps songs. It is a cool online YouTube to MP3 converter where you can use the common method of opening their website and then entering the YouTube URL.
But, there is another super method of converting any YouTube video to MP3 but opening YouTube and just replacing YouTube.com with 320YouTube.com to redirect to this website and start the conversion of YouTube video. It means you can seamlessly watch videos on YouTube and download MP3 of any YouTube video that interests you with its audio.
Highlight: Easy navigation and wide compatibility with video websites
This website is well known for its ease of navigation and its compatibility with many video streaming websites including Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Instagram, etc. You could try out this YouTube MP3 converter yourself, it's pretty simple to use!
On the homepage itself, you have to enter the YouTube video you want to convert to MP3 and then click on the Download button. The page will take a few seconds and then will show you a blue download button. However, there is no option to select the audio quality and you will get original quality that is present with the YouTube video.
Highlight: Edit the URL of YouTube video directly to convert it to MP3
This is another website that provides you a method to directly download YouTube videos to MP3 by editing the YouTube URL. All you need to do is enter “fy” in YouTube.com like this - https://www.youtubefy.com/watch?v=OMyeNoqtEdM
The other common way too is supported where you can go to the website, enter the YouTube video URL and click on the Convert button.
The button to download the MP3 will open in a popup with which you can download the file locally or save it on your Dropbox. The good thing about this tool is no intrusive ads on its webpage.
Highlight: Both online YouTube to MP3 conversion and desktop software supported
FLVTO.ch has both an online webpage to help you make YouTube to MP3 conversion as well as a desktop application.
You can select from a range of formats to download your YouTube video. However, there is no option to select the quality of the MP3. But it offers you to download the video locally, your Dropbox account and in addition to that, you can email a link for download to your inbox. However, we suggest against sharing your email address on such websites for privacy reasons.
Lastly category of free YouTube to mp3 converter can be very easy to use whenever you need it, that is a browser extension or plugin.
There are also some good-to-use browser extensions that allow you to download YouTube videos to MP3 like this one for Chrome. Chrome is one of the most used browsers worldwide with over 1 billion users. Once you install a browser extension or plugin then you’d find it is very convenient to download YouTube videos to MP3 when you are just viewing it lively.
This chrome extension could automatically analyze the videos on the current page and show the thumbnails for you, if you’d like, just click the download arrow button to get it in the format you want, and MP3 is supported as well.
For your quick reference and conclusion, we have created the following table to compare the 4 different types of methods to download YouTube videos to MP3.
Features |
Desktop/laptop software |
Mobile apps |
Online websites |
Browser Extension/ Plugin |
YouTube to MP3 in 320 kbps |
Yes |
No |
Sometimes |
Sometimes |
Downloads Metadata |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Download Playlist |
Yes |
Sometimes |
No |
No |
Queuing of downloads |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Download Speed |
Turbo for DVDFab |
Normal |
Normal |
Normal |
Download on lower kbps |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Auto update of YouTube Playlist |
Available in DVDFab |
No |
No |
No
|
I believe it is a no-brainer to use a free tool to download YouTube videos to MP3 that lets you queue your downloads, download the whole playlist and choose audio quality. StreamFab YouTube Downloader Pro has premium features like Turbo Download and Parallel download of up to 5 files which you can buy if you are impressed with its performance.
However, if you are on a run with your laptop not with you, it is a good idea to get an Android app or use the online YouTube to MP3 downloads which will work on any device.
Furthermore, if you'd like to convert other video formats into MP4, read more about our tutorials: