Q:"How do I record audio from YouTube?"
Are you fascinated by a music video, or impressed by talk shows and official speeches on YouTube? Well, this is nothing strange. If you hear music from YouTube by chance and get no way to find its song information, you may spend a lot of time searching for it, which however, is likely to be futile. Like the question asked above, you may wonder how to record audio from YouTube directly using a proper tool. This is obviously a recommended trouble-free solution most of users resort to. Helping keep your favorite YouTube audio for future listening, some solutions are specially demonstrated here.
- Part 1. FAQs about Recording YouTube Audio
- Part 2. How to Record YouTube Audio
- 1.1 Joyoshare VidiKit [21-in-1 Toolkit]
- 1.2 Audacity
- 1.3 Free Sound Recorder
- 1.4 Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder
- 1.5 YouTube to MP3 Converter
- 1.6 Record YouTube Audio on Android/iPhone
- Part 3. Comparison: Which Is the Best Way?
- Part 4. Summary
Part 1. FAQs about Recording Audio from YouTube
Before you put your mind to recording audio from YouTube, you should be clear about your actual purpose. Thus, we'll lead you to look through some crucial points to common confusions that most users usually have.
Q1: Is it legal to record audio from a YouTube video?
A: No. There are explicit U.S. copyright laws that protect all content uploaded to YouTube. Both downloading and recording audio from copyright-locked YouTube videos without permission is not allowed and can undoubtedly violate the copyright terms of service. It's necessary to get authorization legally or only record audio for personal use. Notably, commercial use, like reuploading or distribution content, is prohibited.
Q2: Can you download music videos from YouTube?
A: Yes. As long as you have a YouTube Premium membership, you can get the permission to download music videos from YouTube official platform.
Q3. Can I record audio from YouTube free?
A: Yes. There are free tools available in the market for you to record audio from a specific YouTube video for free, such as Audacity introduced above. Aside from desktop software, it's possible for you to use a free online audio recorder or browser extension. No matter which one you choose, please pay more attention to its security and legality.
Part 2. How to Record Audio from YouTube
The solutions to capture audio from YouTube can be varied on different operating systems. You can check related guide to record audio from YouTube video below.
#1 Joyoshare VidiKit (Windows & Mac)
Joyoshare VidiKit is a vigoroso video toolbox that provides an all-round solution for recording audio, screen, window, game, and even webcam. It enables you to record all types of audios, such as streaming music, online radio, game music, microphone sound, system audio, etc. in few clicks. With a well-designed built-in audio encoder, this smart software includes full support to diverse popular formats, like MP3, AAC, WAV, M4A, M4B and FLAC.
Best of all, it comes with ability to edit ID3 tags info in a manual manner. You can polish your audio file by correcting title, artist, composer, year, genre, cover, etc. During the recording process, you even have chance to skip any unwanted sections and cut your audio recording to different segments in the way you like. Other than that, it lets you auto-stop recording, utilize shortcuts, specify format configuration, etc. as per your preferences.
- Support 16 formats like MP3, AAC, FLAC, M4A, and more
- Preset audio channel, codec, bitrate and sample rate
- Trim, add sound effects, equalize YouTube audios and recognize ID3 tag
- Record YouTube videos with sounds freely in high quality
- Catch sound from computer systems and/or microphone
- Automatically split or delete the silence
- Skip audio, set shortcuts and add scheduled tasks
Step 1 Run Joyoshare VidiKit and Open Audio Recorder
Simply launch Joyoshare VidiKit on your computer and open Audio Recorder on the "Recorder" panel. To avoid unexpected intervention, you'd better disable your microphone sound and only turn on the System Audio. Adjust the volume if necessary.
Step 2 Decide Recording Preferences
Go ahead to Preferences, which is located at the bottom like a gear icon. Click on Audio section to choose one format for saving audio from YouTube. Here you can preset codec, channel, bit rate, sample rate and even quality in advance.
Step 3Ready to Record Audio from YouTube
Go forward to YouTube's official website and play your favorite video. Now, click the "REC" button to initiate the audio recording. When it is in process, you have the right to skip unwanted portions by clicking the "Pause" button and slice your audio using "Cut " button.
Step 4Edit Recorded YouTube Audio
Upon you end the recording process by clicking the Stop button, your captured YouTube audio file(s) will be shown in the History list. Afterward, you can click on the "Edit" button to trim, and recognize ID3 tag information in the way you want.
#2 Audacity (Windows & Mac & Linux)
Audacity is recognized by the majority of users. It's ideally compatible with Mac, Windows and GNU/Linux. Offering different stunning features, this freeware works professionally to not only record from mixer, microphone or other media, but also edit multi-track audios with high quality. If you'd like to record computer audio with Audacity, such as YouTube audio here, don't miss these simple steps.
● Guide
- Step 1: Run your installed Audacity and click "Edit → Preferences" on the top menu bar.
- Step 2: In the pop-up new window, hit the "Devices" tab and then find the "Recording" section on the window, and after that, you need to expand the "Device" dropdown list and select "Stereo Mix".
- Step 3: Next, hit "OK" to confirm and save all sound settings.
- Step 4: If Audacity was open when you just enabled your Stereo Mix on your computer, you need to relaunch the program so that the Stereo Mix can be visible in the Recording Device list now.
- Step 5: Navigate to YouTube, prepare your YouTube video, and then click the red recording button to record audio from YouTube with Audacity.
- Step 6: End the recording with the stop button and tap on "File" → "Export" to save your recorded YouTube audio as MP3.
● Troubleshooting
If "Stereo Mix" option is not available in Audacity, you can open the Control Panel on your computer first. Next, check "Hardware and sound → Sound → Recording" and right-click to choose "Show Disabled Devices". When you see Stereo Mix device, you can currently right-click to "Enable" it. However, if "Stereo Mix" option is still unavailable, it's possible that there is an integrated sound card on your computer, which prevents you from downloading streaming YouTube audio. In this case, maybe you can try to use a third-party YouTube audio recorder or an online YouTube to MP3 converter instead.
#3 Free Sound Recorder (Windows & Mac)
Free Sound Recorder is a free tool that promises to record music from YouTube with optimal quality. With the help of this one-stop solution, you're able to grab any sound passing through your sound card, such as Internet broadcasts, Google Talk, conferences, etc. and then export audio to MP3, OGG, WMA, or WAV. Furthermore, it comes with various editing options to echo, crop, cut YouTube audio. You can also gain acess to many cool audio effects such as fade in/out, amplify, echo, and so forth.
- Step 1: Open your downloaded Free Sound Recorder and hit the "Record" button to enable its online music recorder.
- Step 2: Go to "Show mixer window" to select "Recording Mixer" and then choose "Stereo Mix" under "Recording Device".
- Step 3: Confirm the output format, parameters and location under "Options".
- Step 4: Simply play the YouTube video you want to record and then click on "Start recording" option to begin capturing audio from YouTube.
- Step 5: "Stop recording" and check it with the built-in media player.
#4 Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder (Windows)
Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder is sufficient to record sound from various video-sharing platforms and music sites, such as YouTube, Jango, Spotify, Grooveshark and more. It saves audios as MP3, AAC, WMA, M4A, M4R, WAV and AC3. With it, you're allowed to get sound from computer itself and microphone. Also, this decent tool can auto-add ID3 tags, convert audios, burn CD and more.
- Step 1: Get Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder started on your computer.
- Step 2: Hit the gear icon → choose "Settings" → set "System sound" as your input audio source.
- Step 3: Play a video on YouTube and click the red record button to capture YouTube audio.
- Step 4: Click on "Stop" to finish recording audio. The file will be saved with music info.
#5 YTMP3 (Online)
For some users, it would be much more convenient if they can get YouTube audio directly using an online YouTube video downloader, which requires no third-party software download and installation. Therefore, to delight you, here we specially select YTMP3 to help convert a YouTube video to audio, like MP3 quickly. You can use it on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android without any problems.
- Step 1: Navigate to https://ytmp3.cc/67c7e/ and confirm whether YTMP3 mark "MP3" format by default for downloading.
- Step 2: Copy and paste a complete YouTube video link (or type keywords to search) and click on "Convert".
- Step 3: Click Download button and patiently wait for YouTube video to MP3 audio conversion.
#6 Record Audio from YouTube on Android/iPhone
It's well known that most smartphones now have a pre-installed screen recorder, which can be activated through the Control Center. You can totally rely on it to save your favorite YouTube music. Another trick to record YouTube sound is to take advantage of the voice recorder in your phone, such as the Voice Memos app on your iPhone. You can play your YouTube video and then use the voice recorder to save the audio track.
Part 3. Comparison: Which Is the Best Way?
The comparison table is made in order to help you see clearly what the differences are among the YouTube audio recorders we mentioned above. Just take a close look at the factors you care most and then pick up one tool to record audio from YouTube.
Joyoshare VidiKit | Audacity | Free Sound Recorder | Apowersoft Streaming Audio Recorder | YTMP3 | Android/iPhone Default Recorder | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Supported OS | Windows, Mac | Windows, Mac, GNU/linux | Windows, Mac | Windows | Web browsers | Android, iPhone |
Supported output audio formats | 16 | 5 | 4 | 5+ | MP3, MP4 | M4A, MP3 |
Record system audio | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ |
Record microphone | √ | √ | √ | √ | × | √ |
Edit recordings | √ | √ | √ | √ | × | √ |
Schedule recording tasks | √ | × | √ | √ | × | √ |
Built-in media player | √ | × | √ | √ | × | √ |
Easy to use | √ | × | × | √ | √ | √ |
Price | $15.95 | Free | Free | $29.95 | Free | Free |
Part 4. Summary
You can find out detailed information about how to record audio from YouTube in this article. As a matter of fact, Joyoshare VidiKit is a multi-purpose video toolkit rather than a simple audio recorder. It has many powerful utilities and can record audio from YouTube in multiple ways. It is undoubtedly one of the most cost-effective desktop applications. Audacity is a professional audio recording and editing tool, but it is less beginner-friendly compared with other audio recorders. You can also choose to use YTMP3 Converter, which supports URL, to convert YouTube to MP3 directly. You can see which need you have and then choose the most suitable solution.