How to Download Music from YouTube
YouTube Music Premiumis a subscription service that lets you download and listen in the background to ad-free music. It costs $9.99/£9.99 per month, but is not yet available in the UK. In the meantime, there is a workaround to download audio-only versions of your favourite YouTube music videos.
We’ll be focusing on an online service calledY2Matehere. There are many such services available, but we’ve found many don’t actually work and just plague you with pop-ups. This service works (at the time of writing).
We’ve written before about whether it isillegal or morally incorrect to download YouTube video, and it’s definitely in violation ofYouTube’s terms and conditions. We advocate nothing, and in this tutorial we’ll be converting only our own YouTube uploads to MP3.
Find the YouTube video URL
Find the video you want to convert on YouTube, then right-click it and choose ‘Copy video URL’.
Alternatively, copy the URL directly from the address bar.
Head to a YouTube-to-MP3 converter site
Now head toY2Matein your browser. Paste the video URL into the text box using Ctrl + V. Rather than clicking Start, wait for the Download options to appear below. At the bottom you’ll see YouTube to MP3 Converter – tap the New button next to this.
Request an MP3 conversion
On the next page you’ll be offered an MP3 rather than MP4 version of the file. Click Download next to this.
The audio file will automatically be downloaded to your computer.
Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director, International
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for almost 20 years, covering all types of consumer tech from smartphones and their accessories to smart home gear. These days she manages our international editorial teams and leads on content strategy, having witnessed first-hand Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.
