paulrobello YouTube Audio Extraction
Extract audio from a YouTube video (or any of the 1000+ sites yt-dlp supports) and save it locally as MP3 or another format, using yt-dlp + ffmpeg.
Prerequisites
Requires yt-dlp and ffmpeg. Auto-install if missing:
which yt-dlp >/dev/null 2>&1 || brew install yt-dlp
which ffmpeg >/dev/null 2>&1 || brew install ffmpeg
If ffmpeg is installed but yt-dlp can't find it (conversion fails), pass --ffmpeg-location pointing at ffmpeg's bin dir, e.g. --ffmpeg-location /opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg-full/bin.
Core command
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 --no-playlist \
-o "<output-dir>/<name>.%(ext)s" "<URL>"
Flags:
-x— extract audio (omit it and you get the video file)--audio-format mp3— target format:mp3,m4a,aac,flac,wav,opus,vorbis,alac--audio-quality 0— best VBR quality. Use a bitrate like192Kfor smaller files.--no-playlist— grab only the one video even if the URL is part of a playlist-o "...%(ext)s"— let yt-dlp finalize the extension; don't hardcode.mp3
Default output dir: ~/Downloads unless the user specifies elsewhere.
Worked example
Save a video's audio to Downloads as MP3, best quality:
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 --no-playlist \
-o "$HOME/Downloads/arcane-sucker.%(ext)s" \
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sekyV_o2pM"
Verify the result
ls -lh "<output-dir>/<name>.mp3"
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration,bit_rate,format_name \
-of default=noprint_wrappers=1 "<output-dir>/<name>.mp3"
Variations
| Goal | Add / change |
|---|---|
| Smaller file | --audio-quality 192K (or 128K) |
| Lossless | --audio-format flac or wav |
| Only a clip | --download-sections "*00:30-01:00" (start-end, HH:MM:SS ok) |
| Whole playlist | drop --no-playlist; use -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" |
| Embed cover art + tags | --embed-thumbnail --embed-metadata |
| Faster downloads | --downloader aria2c (requires aria2 installed) |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
yt-dlp: command not found |
brew install yt-dlp |
conversion fails / ffmpeg not found |
add --ffmpeg-location pointing at ffmpeg's bin dir |
Sign in to confirm you're not a bot / HTTP 403 |
brew upgrade yt-dlp first; if still failing, pass --cookies-from-browser chrome (or --cookies cookies.txt) |
| Video unavailable / private / members-only | cannot be downloaded — surface the error to the user |
| Download is slow / stalls | try -f bestaudio or --downloader aria2c |
Got a .webm/.m4a instead of .mp3 |
you forgot -x --audio-format mp3 |
Notes
yt-dlpis actively updated; YouTube breakages are almost always fixed bybrew upgrade yt-dlp. Upgrade first when a previously-working URL starts failing.- Only download content you have the rights to; respect YouTube's Terms of Service and applicable copyright.