Audio Formats to Convert YouTube Videos to Audio
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.
Darya Smith
