“Is there a way to download the audio from a youtube video and listen to it in podcast form? Basically I listen to a lot of commentary, debate, and discussion channels on youtube when im home but a lot of podcasts at work. id like to be able to have some of these on my phone in audio form. I have no service and can not stream them and only want the audio.” - posted by user on Reddit to find out how to download audio only from YouTube. Here in this post, we're about to introduce one of the mainstream video/audio downloaders - YouTube-DL as well as answering everything about "YouTube DL Audio Only". Let's get started!

youtube-dl audio only

Part 1: Is it safe to use YouTube-DL?

Being the most popular open sorce command-line program to download video from YouTube, YouTUbe-DL is a completely free download manager that applied to YouTube and other 1000+ video-sharing websites. It requires the Python interpreter (2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+) and it's not platform-specific. Depending on the software developer's speech, YouTube-DL is totally legal and safe that comes with 2 main reasons: 1) the source code doesn't infringe any copyrights. 2) YouTube-DL is not only be used to download YouTube videos, but also other legitimate websites.

Part 2: How to use YouTube DL to download audio only

1. How to download video using YouTube DL?

A flowchart on how to install & use YouTube DL in sequential order below.

  • youtube dl audio only

    Step 1: Go to the official site https://youtube-dl.org/, hit the “Download instructions”.

  • youtube dl audio only

    Step 2: YouTube-dl requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack, install this mentioned package if you haven’t it on your Windows PC.

  • youtube dl audio only

    Step 3: Download and install YouTube-dl.exe. Click on the “Windows exe” option and start to downloading.

  • youtube dl audio only

    Step 4: Open your browser's "Downloads" page (let’s take Chrome as an example), click "Show in folder", and copy the file path of YouTube-dl in the folder.

  • youtube dl audio only

    Step 5: Type cmd in the Windows search box and call out Command Prompt panel. Paste the path of YouTube-dl.exe in the Command Prompt. After that, run the command line - youtube-dl --version to check whether the installation has been completed or not. Once it shows the version like 2021.12.17 on the panel, it means you’ve already installed this .exe successfully.

  • youtube

    Step 6: Enjoy the downloaded video with 4K video player.

2. How to download audio only with YouTube DL?

Check out the detailed steps on downloading only audio with YouTube DL:

    Extract audio using --extract-audio
    youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 _video_URL

    Extract audio using shortcut method -x
    youtube-dl -x _video_URL (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)

Part 3: Another super easy way to download video/audio from YouTube

As you can see the YouTube DL does require certain coding or computer knowledge, and it takes quite a while to understand or execute the command line for newbies. Given that, we’d like to introduce another easy-to-use program to download streaming content instead.

CleverGet Video Downloader, a comprehensive online movie downloader that could not only download online videos, but also free movies, paid movies and even live streams, could help you easily complete online free movie download tasks in simple clicks. With it, you could easily download free movies from various free movie or video websites like YouTube, Twitter, Tubi, Facebook live, Vimeo and various other free movie sites.

  • CleverGet
  • CleverGet Video Downloader

    Download Movie Video With 320 Kbps audio.
    Easily Download Live Streams Without Quality Loss.
    Video Info Extractor.
    Supports Playlist Downloading.
    Support Multi-tasking & Video Info Extractor Inside.
    Ease-of-use UI.

Step 1: Kick off CleverGet Video Downloader

Visit the YouTube website from your browser, then copy and paste the link from your address bar. If you have the link already saved somewhere, proceed to step 2.

most viewed youtube video

Step 2: Choose the desired video

Paste the link into the address bar of CleverGet, which should open the video webpage. From the list presented, select the ideal video with parameters that suite your needs (such as quality and format).

most viewed youtube video

Step 3: Proceed to download YouTube videos

Once you have confirmed everything, click the download button to initiate your download.

most viewed youtube video

Step 4: Convert the downloaded video to high quality audio format

In this step, you’re required to download Leawo Video Converter first to continue the process. This tool is capable of converting video to audio in various formats, including AAC, AC3, WAV, MP3, WMA, FLAC, M4A, M4R, MKA, AIFF, AMR, MP2, OGG, AU.

  • Leawo Video Converter
  • Leawo Video Converter

    1. Convert video and audio files between 180+ formats without quality loss
    2. Support 720P, 1080P and even real 4K video output
    3. Create photo slideshows from photos stored on camera, computer, camcorder, etc
    4. Built-in video editor to trim, crop, add watermark, apply special effect, etc
    5. 2D to 3D converter with 6 different 3D movie effects available

After that, you can enjoy the audio file of high quality on whatever devices you want. Just give it a shot if you hanppen to seek alternative to YouTube DL.

Part 4: FAQs - Possible issues about YouTube DL & How to fix them

It’s no doubt that YouTube DL is a versatile yet convenient project to help download desired media content from websites. However, users could encounter several errors while using this program, let’s fix that discordant stuff one by one.

1. YouTube-DL slow & How to fix it?

There are 4 proven ways to fix the “YouTube-DL slow problem”, which are switching YouTube to ty-dlp, rebooting the computer, clearing cache, and altering to a powerful video downloader application. Those methods are well-explained in this guide - How to Fix YouTube-DL Slow Speed.

2. YouTube DL playlist & How to download YouTube playlist using YouTube DL?

Quite easy to download video in batch by inputting the below command line after calling out YouTube-dl.exe in the Command Prompt:

    youtube-dl url_to_playlist
    For instance “youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=xxx”

3. Youtube DL age restricted & How to bypass the age restriction using it?

4 shared method on Reddit to cope with this issue:
(1) update to yt-dlp, which has fixed this problem already.
(2) verified your age on your account.
(3) provide cookies to YouTube DL or yt-dlp.
(4) Or use a VPN/proxy.