Quality
What the MP3 sounds like
The MP3 comes out at roughly 128 to 160 kbps, the range most streaming apps use on cellular data. Through earbuds, a car stereo or a Bluetooth speaker it sounds the way the YouTube video did.
Labels such as "320 kbps" on YouTube rips are mostly marketing. YouTube's own audio stream carries less detail than that, and re-encoding it at a higher rate only makes the file larger.
Size
File sizes you can expect
| 3-minute track | about 3 MB |
|---|---|
| 45-minute podcast | about 45 MB |
| 2-hour DJ set (the limit) | about 110 MB |
A useful rule: close to one megabyte per minute, whatever the video looked like.
Uses
Good jobs for the MP3
- Workout and running playlists you want offline at the gym or on the trail.
- Long drives through spots with no coverage, from the Trans-Canada to Route 66.
- Lectures, sermons and talks you want to replay on a commute.
- Background music for a class presentation or a slideshow, when the creator allows it.
Pick well
Finding the cleanest upload
Search results show each video's length and channel. Uploads from the performer's official channel, or the auto-generated "Artist - Topic" channels, carry the studio mix. Lyric videos are usually fine too. Live phone recordings and fan re-uploads often have crowd noise, cut intros or a pitch shift.
If a result runs much longer than the song, it is probably a music video with a skit at the start; pick a shorter upload.
Library
Getting the MP3 into your music
iPhone
The MP3 opens straight from the Files app. To have it beside your other music, import it into an app that reads from Files (VLC is free), or sync it from a computer through Apple Music.
Android
Players such as Poweramp or the phone's built-in music app index Download automatically. If a track is missing, use Files by Google to drop it into Music.
Computer
Drag it into your music library, or into any folder your player watches.
Questions
MP3 questions
Why is MP3 allowed when MP4 was refused?
MP4 stops at about 30 minutes and MP3 at about two hours, so a long video can still give you its sound.
Will my player show the right artist?
The file carries the video's title as its name. Fix the artist and album fields in your player's tag editor.
What about music.youtube.com?
Paste a track link from YouTube Music and it converts exactly like a regular video.
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