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Download a Youtube video to mp3 with the Linux shell.

by

Firstly, install youtube-dl.

jason@darkstar:~/Music$ sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

Then run this command with the Youtube video URL.

jason@darkstar:~/Music$ youtube-dl -f bestaudio -x --audio-format mp3 --prefer-ffmpeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWFm2LIYNjg
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Extracting video information
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Downloading DASH manifest
[download] Destination: Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a
[download] 100% of 13.85MiB in 00:11
[ffmpeg] Correcting container in "Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a"
[avconv] Destination: Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.mp3
Deleting original file Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a (pass -k to keep)

Now the MP3 file will be created on your HDD. This is the best way to save an MP3 of your favourite song on Youtube.

The –write-thumbnail parameter will write the video thumbnail to a jpeg file as well as the MP3, this could be useful if you wish to have it as the music ID3 art.

jason@darkstar:~/Music$ youtube-dl -f bestaudio -x --audio-format mp3 --write-thumbnail --prefer-ffmpeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWFm2LIYNjg
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Extracting video information
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Downloading DASH manifest
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Downloading thumbnail ...
[youtube] UWFm2LIYNjg: Writing thumbnail to: Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.jpg
[download] Destination: Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a
[download] 100% of 13.85MiB in 00:22
[ffmpeg] Correcting container in "Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a"
[avconv] Destination: Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.mp3
Deleting original file Dune (1983) OST - Dune Prophecy (Long Version)-UWFm2LIYNjg.m4a (pass -k to keep)

Use this whenever you want to save a Youtube video to a music file in your ~/Music folder.


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