Downloading YouTube Videos

May 17, 2023 11:34 AM

What's the safest tool to download YouTube videos and convert them to mp4s and mp3s these days? I desperately need a copy of this song and all my previous tools no longer work.
posted by The Adventure Begins to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

yt-dlp
posted by genpfault at 11:34 AM on May 17, 2023 [5 favorites]

More detail: yt-dlp is a command-line program for downloading and converting videos, music, subtitles, etc. It's open-source and is very widely used. Lots of other download tools use it on their backend.

If the github page linked above is confusing, I'd search youtube for an installation and usage guide for your operating system. If you're on Windows then this video might help (I'm not, so I can't vouch for it personally, but it seems thorough). First-time setup might seem a bit complicated, but after that it's a quick and no-fuss tool.
posted by trig at 12:01 PM on May 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

yt-dlp is great. It probably also wants ffmpeg; if you aren't familiar with that, it's a Swiss Army knife of media file conversion & manipulation.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:16 PM on May 17, 2023

4K Video Downloader
posted by bangles at 12:44 PM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Until this week I didn't know it existed, now I'm a member. YouTube Music Premium should meet your needs. Use the 7 day free trial if you don't want to pay for it.
posted by Xurando at 1:02 PM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was wrong. You can listen to music offline but they are not Mp3's.
posted by Xurando at 1:13 PM on May 17, 2023

If you need a GUI, Open Video Downloader uses yt-dlp to do the work while presenting a fairly friendly front-end UI.
posted by Aleyn at 2:47 PM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I ran yt-dlp in Powershell as administrator (couldn't get it to save files otherwise), but folks say cmd works too. [my sys is Win Home]. yt-dlp default audio/video download is .webm (which I know nil about but it plays fine offline), but you can choose what you want.

https://scoop.sh/ ('command-line installer for Windows') seems simplest way to install yt-dlp, I used the two lines below Quickstart on then;
scoop install yt-dlp

yt-dlp has a LOT of options, some more common ones here makeuseof.

If you want a specific format it's best to see what is available:
yt-dlp --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkR4wjPC_0c
^ a Lebanon Hanover track

Choose your preferred format by choosing the corresponding number in the first/ID column, enter in the cmd and run again:

yt-dlp -f 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkR4wjPC_0c

and again
yt-dlp --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwtEOp7pC1A
^ REN Bittersweet Symphony retake

You don't want the ones that say 'video only' so this -f 'bv*+ba' finds best audio and video from list and merges:

yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwtEOp7pC1A
posted by unearthed at 10:00 PM on May 17, 2023

yt-dlp is a great tool.....if you're comfortable with the command line and having to memorise a load of complex commands and having no user interface.

If you prefer something a bit more user-friendly here's my two-step process for downloading songs (which I only use if I can't find them to buy legally; support those artists, people!)

1. Use 4k Video Downloader to download the video as an mp4
2. Upload the video to Cloud Convert to turn it into an mp3

No arcane tech knowledge required.
posted by underclocked at 11:20 PM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you just want something easy, yt5s worked on that particular song when I tried it. It will allow you to download directly as mp3 without having to do any post-conversion.
posted by juv3nal at 12:49 AM on May 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

4K Video Downloader allows direct downloading of mp3s with no other conversion necessary. (Change "Download Video" dropdown to "Extract Audio".)
posted by bangles at 10:47 AM on May 18, 2023

Be careful with sites like yt5s and the myriad clones that appear (and disappear) daily. They love to open pop-ups and try to trick you into installing add-ons or software. If you're paying close attention and use a good ad-blocker, you're probably fine, but be very, very careful.
posted by xedrik at 3:00 PM on May 18, 2023

I just thought that went without needing to be said in 2023, but yes, xedrik is absolutely right. I wouldn't try something like that on a mobile device where my ad blocking is less capable.
posted by juv3nal at 5:42 PM on May 18, 2023