Trustworthy YouTube to audio file converter recommendations?

Software
1

My relative is in need of a non–malware converter from YouTube to an audio file. Not for a copyrighted song of course. This seems like an area where a Google search leads to all kinds of sketchy websites and applications. Trusted recommendations are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

2

CLI tool youtube-dl works really well for this.

Syntax is:
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 url
For just a regular video:
youtube-dl url

Need to install with homebrew as:
brew install youtube-dl

Here's the abbreviated man page 

  youtube-dl

  Download videos from YouTube and other websites.

  - Download a video or playlist:
    youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

  - Download the audio from a video and convert it to an MP3:
    youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 url

  - Download video(s) as MP4 files with custom filenames:
    youtube-dl --format mp4 --output "%(title) by %(uploader) on %(upload_date) in %(playlist).%(ext)" url

  - Download a video and save its description, metadata, annotations, subtitles, and thumbnail:
    youtube-dl --write-description --write-info-json --write-annotations --write-sub --write-thumbnail url

  - From a playlist, download all "Let's Play" videos that aren't marked "NSFW" or age-restricted for 7 year-olds:
    youtube-dl --match-title "let's play" --age-limit 7 --reject-title "nsfw" playlist_url
2 Likes
3

Thanks, I’m sure it’s easy for those who understand Homebrew and the Terminal, but I’m the geek of the family and I’m not sure I could figure it out for myself (having never used Homebrew), much less the non-geek family members. Wish these tools had a user-friendly UI. Maybe I need to search out a Homebrew for newbies set of instructions.

4

Curl works fine to install; Homebrew not needed. See the youtube-dl download page.

5

I’ve used the free version of 4K Video Downloader in the past and found it worked well. Despite its name, it can download lower res video as well as audio.

I currently use Downie, which is a slick app that has a built-in Safari Extension. It isn’t free, however. It’s currently $19.99 USD for a license and included in Setapp.

2 Likes
6

This works a treat:

7

If they have SetApp, there is one on there.

8

This is fantastic! Just found homebrew today.

1 Like