There are a lot of reasons why you might want to convert a YouTube video to an MP3 file so you can easily listen to it on your iPhone, iPod, or Mac but unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t let you natively download videos, much less convert them to MP3 files. Thankfully, all you need is a good YouTube video converter for your Mac to easily get your favorite songs from YouTube onto your computer.
Using one of these converters may sound complicated but it’s actually quite simple if you find the right app. We’ve compiled a list of the best YouTube to MP3 converters for Mac to help you find the right one for you.
The best YouTube to MP3 for Mac on this list is Airy. It has a wide range of options and it’s extremely easy to use. You can download a single video, multiple videos at once (batch downloads), or if you choose, you can even download full playlists. Even better, you can also download entire channels so you can get all your favorite songs in one go. It supports MP4, FLV, and 3GP formats as well. Of course, you can also download as an MP3 if you just want the audio.
Pros: Airy allows to download entire YouTube playlists, channel or category at once. Easy MP3 extracting.
Cons: Free version limited to two downloads.
The free version of Airy lets you download two videos for free - check it out!
MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter is meant to assist in downloading the audio track of your favorite YouTube videos, and supports MP3, M4A and OGG formats. The app is friendly to use and only requires that you have an active Internet connection. The utility lets you customize output location, audio format and quality and several other features.
Pros: Easy and smooth operation.
Cons: It doesn’t support downloading different playlists into different folders — you have to rename them manually before downloading.
Wondershare AllMyTube for Mac is an all-in-one tool combining a professional online video downloader and a great video converter. With it you can download videos from YouTube and convert the downloaded videos to almost all popular video formats. Besides, AllMyTube for Mac can serve as a video player. This player lets you enjoy FLV, MP4, WebM videos on Mac. The Library helps you manage the videos.
Pros: After a conversion, transferring a video to your mobile device you need just scan the QR code that the app creates to begin the transfer process, which is a really cool feature.
Cons: (This should be a “pro,” but…) There is decent built-in help…if you can find it.
Flvto YouTube Downloader for Mac lets you choose a wide variety of options beginning from MP3, to AVI, MP4, MOV and many more. If you have ever encountered problems with importing music to an Apple device, you'll find this app really useful to import favorite songs to iTunes in just a click. This YouTube Video Downloader for Mac supports the conversion of whole YouTube playlists and channels as a batch, no need to convert song by song.
Pros: There is a built-in player that allows you to preview songs before downloading.
Cons: From time to time in our testing, several users had YouTube download fails, caused by modified URLs of the content.
MacX Video Converter Pro offers really good performance while downloading YouTube MP3 files and is ad-free and virus-free. It also lets you convert YouTube videos to any formats including 4K HD videos.
Pros: MacX Video Converter Pro can convert both video and audio files in over 1000 formats, from MP4, AVI, MKV, DVD, and others to iOS-compatible devices like the iPhone and iPad.
Cons: Slow when switching between feature interfaces.
YTD Video Downloader for Mac allows you to download from YouTube. It is praiseworthy that this Mac app supports batch video and audio downloading. All in all, it is easy to use with a nice interface, supports multiple video hosting services, downloads fast, performs on-the-go conversion. Simply enter the video URL to start downloading of YouTube videos to MP3 format.
Pros: App interface very easy to navigate.
Cons: Too much Ad in the app, for users it’s slightly annoying.
Free YouTube to MP3 Converter for Mac is a DVDVideoSoft application. It smoothly converts YouTube videos to MP3 soundtracks. The program supports adding multiple files for conversion and boasts a clean interface that clearly shows what files are queued for conversion. This program keeps download history for your reference.
Pros: Quick conversions — a 5 minutes file took mere seconds to run through the conversion process.
Cons: The application constantly tries to get users to download additional programs and browser extensions during installation.
YouTube Music is fine. It really is. There are even 3 options, from free to not free.
One, there's an ad-supported version for people who want to give the service a risk-free shot.
Two, YouTube Music Premium is ad-free, accessible offline, and music will keep playing even with your device screen locked. YouTube Music Premium is $9.99 per month.
Three, the YouTube mobile app. The app is very much like the desktop version, with a simple, attractive, grid-based interface that places playlists front and center. You can download offline playlists and let YouTube Music play in the background while you work or surf. Keener ears will notice there's no option to tweak the audio bit rate. That’s unusual for music-based mobile apps. On the upside, though, the YouTube was steady in our testing, playing without crashing and freezing.
Pros: Nice streaming music service with feature to download content to watch offline.
Cons: No additional features for YouTube downloading. (And that’s why you’re reading this article in the first place!)
There are a lot of great options when choosing the best YouTube to MP3 app for Mac so you’ll need to do some legwork. Finding the right option that gives you everything you need will involve a bit of research. Lucky for you, we went ahead and did most of the research for you, comparing and testing lots of different choices to find the ones we like the best. We compared dozens of different apps and software with a wide range of features and options to really find the best ones on the market.
With so many different YouTube music downloaders for Mac, it’s important to know what factors to consider when choosing your software.
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Top features
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VideoDuke
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Airy
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MediaHuman
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AllMyTube
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FLVto
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MacX Video Converter Pro
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YTD Video Downloader
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Free YouTube to MP3 Converter
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YouTube Music
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Download Videos from YouTube
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Download Videos from YouTube
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Download Videos from 1000+ Other Sites
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Download Videos from 1000+ Other Sites
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Download in different video formats
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Download in different video formats
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Help & Support
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Help & Support
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Browser integration
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Browser integration
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Windows Supported operating systems
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Windows Supported operating systems
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Mac Supported operating systems
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Mac Supported operating systems
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Download HD Video
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Download HD Video
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Choose Video Resolution
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Choose Video Resolution
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Extraction of Audio from YouTube
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Extraction of Audio from YouTube
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Pause/ Resume Downloading
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Pause/ Resume Downloading
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Playlist downloading
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Playlist downloading
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Channel Downloading
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Channel Downloading
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Batch downloading
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Batch downloading
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Private videos download
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Private videos download
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The MP3 era marked one of the most exciting moments for the music industry. Compared to other big moments for music like when audio cassettes or CDs were launched, MP3 did not originate in the music industry. It was the huge family of music lovers where MP3 started its rise towards history. The massive impact MP3 had on digital music can hardly be measured in words. Changing the way we listen, collect and distribute music, MP3 considerably improved everything related to audio.
However, despite the immense progress it brought, not everyone is happy about MP3. Old-school audiophiles still claim that an MP3 song will never compare to the same song on Vinyl or CD. Other voices go as far as saying the way music engineers work was changed for the worse because of MP3 and digital audio. And while there’s a certain amount of truth in these claims, because the MP3 compression format is what is called a lossy format, the small size of the files is a huge plus. On the other hand, if you go for lossless compression, you get higher quality but bigger files at the same time.
Another plus that MP3 files bring comes from being able to control just how much information you want to put on an MP3 during compression and encoding. Being able to create various versions of the same file with different sound quality, is a good tool. The main indicator of quality / compression comes from the bit rate, or how many bits per second get encoded in an MP3 file.
Even with the best and trusted MP3 music converters, there is a slim possibility that the tools will try to install malware or adware into your system. That said, here are a few tips to keep your Mac safe:
When you’re using a Mac YouTube converter, you should know there are two types of audio quality provided by various formats: lossless or lossy. Lossless, as the name suggests, is preserving the original audio quality, without losing quality from one storage device to another. Lossy music, on the other hand, sacrifice quality to gain storage space. If you want to know how to convert YouTube to MP3 and finding the best ratio between quality and sound, check out the following article.
MP3
MP3 is at the same time a file extension and a compression method that is based on the MPEG standard to reduce the size of audio files by a factor of 12. The thing with MP3 is that even though they do miracles at saving storage space, the quality is still comparable to a CD and that allowed an entire class of products to be rolled out. Remember how amazed you were when the iPod was able to fit 1000songs into your pocket? You have MP3 to thank for that.
The audio quality is measured in something called bit rate and it is expressed in kilobytes per second. The higher the bit read, the better the quality will be. With MP3, the common bit rates for MP3 files range between 128 kbps and 256 kbps.
Even though MP3 is one of the most popular audio formats on earth right now, Apple doesn’t use it to offer music. Despite being compatible with iTunes and other iOS devices, MP3 is not the format of choice for iPhone and iPad devices.
AAC
Another format that you will see available when you’re using the best YouTube to MP3 converter is AAC. Similar to MP3, AAC is also a lossy file format and even though the quality isn’t the same as on CD, the differences are so small that most people can’t even notice. The quality of AAC files is also determined by its bit rate and, just like MP3, the most commonly used bitrates include 128 kbps, 192, kbps or 256 kbps. So, if they are so similar to MP3, how come most of the time the quality is better? You can find an answer to that here if you want to steer away from our topic of YouTube downloader MP3 software.
OGG
Another format that you probably see often listed in the presentations of Mac Youtube converter software is OGG. This open-source file format is versatile as it can contain music, video, text ,and other data. OGG is optimized for streaming content and it can’t be copyrighted, which makes available for use by anyone without a charge.
M4A
An extension that was considered by many the successor of MP3, M4A is encoded using advanced audio coding ( AAC) and offers lossy compression. M4A stands for MPEG 4 Audio and that should already ring a bell since MPEG 4 is a container used for video files as well. M4A was developed as a third layer in MPEG 1 and 2 video files that were used with DVD players back in the day.
WMA
Short for Windows MEdia Audio, .wma is obviously a file type invented by Microsoft. It is native for Windows Media Player on all devices and it was designed to compete with AAC and MP3 for supremacy in audio files. Unfortunately, it’s incompatibility with Apple devices doesn’t make it extremely used. Quick Time can’t read the extension either so if you really want to play WMA on a Mac you will need a Mac YouTube converter to get the job done.
FLAC
FLAC may ring a bell to all audiophiles out there. A format that is actually an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec, it does an outstanding job at reducing the size of high-quality files with up to 60% without losing quality at all. While FLAC isn’t compatible with iTunes of iOS devices, you can still play it through additional software.
WAV
WAV stands for Waveform Audio Format and it’s a high-qualitt audio file used mostly on CDs. There’s no compression in WAV files and that’s why they require a lot more space than AAC or MP3. With WAV, you need around 10 MB for 1 minute of audio while MP3 can fit a minute in 1 MB, just so you can understand the differences between the two formats. WAV is compatible with Apple devices as well and represents a great choice for audiophiles.
If you still have some unanswered questions about formats and Mac Youtube converter solutions, we put together some frequently asked questions and answered them. Read below
This question also related with other similar as "How to convert youtube to mp3 on Mac?", "How do you download music from YouTube on a Mac?” or “How to Download Songs from YouTube on a Mac”. While most YouTube media downloaders have restrictions that prevent them from downloading copyrighted audio, you can use Airy (#1 in our review list) to rip music from any YouTube video.
Step 1: Download and install Airy.
Step 2: Copy the video link.
Step 3: Paste the video link (URL) into the Airy window.
Step 4: Select MP3 as target format.
Step 5: Click the Download button.
If you’d rather not install an app, you can use an online video converter. If you have a YouTube Music premium account you can download music on your mobile device.
From our experience, Airy leads the pack as the best standalone YouTube to MP3 converting app. For online tools, the winner is OnlineVideoConverter. Airy is a downloadable app that runs on your Mac desktop, and OnlineVideoConverter is a web-based app.
What’s the benefit of desktop apps like Airy?
First and foremost, they are safe, with a low risk for malware.
Also:
And if you prefer online downloaders like OnlineVideoConverter, you get:
Easily, that’s how!
One of the best ways to accomplish this is to use an Apple iOS native app called “Workflow.”
Here’s a YouTube video (naturally) to show you how.
Bitrate refers to the number of bits—or the amount of data—that is processed over a certain amount of time. In audio, this usually means kilobits per second. For example, the music you bought on iTunes ran at 256 kilobits per second, meaning there are 256 kilobits of data stored in every second of a song. Now that iTunes has evolved into Apple Music — offering both streaming and downloadable music — Apple has maintained a 256 kbps bitrate.
The higher the bitrate of a track, the more space it will take up on your computer. Generally, an audio CD will actually take up quite a bit of space, which is why it's become common practice to compress those files down so you can fit more on your hard drive (or iPod, or Dropbox, or whatever). It is here where the argument over "lossless" and "lossy" audio comes in.
YouTube is filled with videos from users from all over the world. And while some of the downloaders available come with restrictions when it comes to downloading copyrighted audio, Airy is a software that will get the job done excellently.
Here’s how to use it:
YouTube is rich with media content. And there are a lot of great reasons to find a good YouTube to MP3 app for Mac and there are a lot of good options to choose from. Now you have the tools to download and convert and enjoy. Have fun!
