Step by Step: Ripping Audio from YouTube Video

[Darknezz]

Second tutorial of mine, I'll show you how to extract an MP3 from a YouTube video. It's fairly simple.

Please note: This tutorial is built for Firefox users. I'm not sure about other browsers, but you can search for a plugin that will download embedded videos.

>>Phase 1: Getting the Video

>Step 1: Stuff you'll need.

• Firefox
  
• An addon to download embedded videos (I suggest Download Helper: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006)
  
• A video with a song you want, any site will do.
  

>Step 2: Find your video

Go to YouTube.com, veoh.com or any other website that plays streaming video. Some websites, like Hulu.com, may be protected, but not very many sites do this.

Find the video that you want to rip the audio from.

>Step 3: Take the video!

With DownloadHelper (the addon I suggested earlier), you simply need to wait until the three balls become colored and spin. This icon is to the right of your address bar. Then, simply open the drop-down menu (click the arrow on the icon) and select your video's name.

It should download a .flv file. This is what YouTube uses to compress their stuff. It also causes the bad video quality. Side-note: If you want to watch any video in higher quality, just add "&fmt=18" to any video's URL.

Now you have the video! Phase 1 complete.

Phase 2: Rip the audio

Step 1: Required Junk

• An audio-ripping program
  

So, what's a good one?

I use AoA Audio Extractor (http://www.aoamedia.com/audioextractor.htm), but if you'd like to go and find something else, be my guest, but make sure it supports .flv files!

Step 2: Rip it!

Install the Audi Extractor of your choice, import the .flv file and select MP3 and your bitrate (I suggest 128), and hit convert!

[BRYN]

Not to steal your thunder... But here's the method I sometime use.
Should be used able by any browser, and can rip to very many different formats.

Supported video sites:
Youtube, Google Video, Revver, PutFile, Spike, Blip.tv, TinyPic, Myspace, Dailymotion, and more...

Can also convert your own files.


Site:
www.zamzar.com/url/

Simply follow the 4 steps, and receive your converted file in your email.

[helixfc3s]

Nice solutions.

Here is what I use:

nuclear-coffee.com/VideoGet

It does a lot more than ripping audio and it can do more than one url.

[danimakesitrain]

i use vixy...i find it much easier than the method in the first post. faster, too. that's why i switched to it. the other two methods i haven't tried though, to be able to say which is better.

vixy.net/

[thecosmicfly]

The method I've always used is downloading youtube vids as flv (Won't bother linking to any sites. Just google any) and then convert them using this site.

media-convert.com/

Might not be the most efficient way of doing it, but it works fine for me. Can convert it to audio or video, and in a range of formats.

[arrow91]

I've done something similar, except it's a longer route.

Download the .flv from YouTube, and convert the .flv into .mp3 using SUPER (a really useful converting tool that's free, however, it's a resource hog).

The only problem that I have is the volume. Whenever I add a song I ripped from YT into my MP3 player (I wish I have an iPod..), it's always that one song that I have to blast the volume up to hear properly. And of course, on the next track, it BLASTS my ears and I have to turn it down again.

And no need to notify me that I can use stuff like Audacity to ramp up the volume. I just haven't put myself to that kind of trouble yet.

[Nek™]

A bit of an old sticky post here but I thought I'd contribute greatly with this website. You copy and paste the videos URL into the bar and click go. It'll automatically rip it for you without downloading or signing up for anything.

www.listentoyoutube.com/index.php

[Phoenix]

Thanks alot Darknezz, I just gave it a try using your instuctions and it worked perfectly. Thanks man

[Monsieur Pierre]

Aren't most of the sites quality-reducing?