YouTube Music to MP3
You’ve built a library in YouTube Music and now you want those songs as plain MP3 files for a car stereo, an old MP3 player or a phone with no signal. Some of that is easy, some of it isn’t possible, and this page tells you which is which.
The short version
- ✓Songs you uploaded yourself: export them with Google Takeout, then convert anything that isn’t already MP3. Totally fine, and free.
- ✓Creative Commons or royalty-free tracks: fine to save, as long as the licence allows downloads.
- !Premium downloads: useful offline, but they stay locked in the app. They are not MP3 files.
- ✕Ripping the streaming catalog: YouTube’s terms don’t allow it, and we won’t pretend otherwise.
Your uploads are the easy win
A lot of people forget that YouTube Music isn’t only a streaming service. It also works as a locker for your own files. According to Google’s upload help page, you can store up to 100,000 of your own songs in FLAC, M4A, MP3, OGG or WMA format, and only you can play them. If you moved over from Google Play Music, your old uploads probably live there too.
Getting those files back out is a job for Google Takeout. Jeff Sikes has a clear walkthrough of exporting a YouTube Music upload library, and the key detail is picking the right option: “music-uploads” gives you the actual audio files, while “music-library-songs” only gives you a list of song names.
How to turn your uploads into MP3s
- 1.Go to takeout.google.com and click “Deselect all”.
- 2.Tick “YouTube and YouTube Music”, open its content options, deselect everything and choose only “music-uploads”.
- 3.Create a one-time export as a .zip. Google emails you when it’s ready, which can take a while for big libraries.
- 4.Unzip it and check the file types. MP3s are ready to go. For the rest, use the FLAC to MP3 converter, M4A to MP3 converter or WMA to MP3 converter.
- 5.Fix any messy song titles or missing album art in the MP3 tag editor before you copy them anywhere.
What YouTube Music Premium downloads can and can’t do
If you pay for Premium, you can already listen offline without converting anything. Google’s offline listening help page explains that downloads are saved to your mobile device for playback in the app, and that you need to reconnect to the internet at least once every 30 days to keep them.
That’s great for a flight or a commute. It won’t help if you want music on a device that can’t run the app, like a basic MP3 player, a USB stick for the car or an old iPod. For those you need real files, which brings you back to your uploads, your own purchases or freely licensed music.
Why we don’t “rip” the streaming catalog
Plenty of sites will tell you any YouTube Music link can be dropped into a converter. Here is what YouTube’s Terms of Service actually say: you are not allowed to download content except as expressly authorized by the service, or with prior written permission from YouTube and the rights holders. The same terms also rule out getting around features that stop content being copied.
So we stick to what’s allowed: your own uploads, music under a licence that permits downloads, and audio you own. If a regular YouTube video falls into one of those groups (a video from your own channel, for example), our YouTube to MP3 converter covers it.
Getting the best sound out of the conversion
Your MP3 can only be as good as the file you start with. Lossless FLAC uploads make great 256 or 320 kbps MP3s. An upload that was already a 128 kbps MP3 won’t sound any better at 320, it will just take up more space. If storage is tight on your player, run the finished files through the MP3 compressor. Our audio format guide has more on how the formats compare.
Got your MP3s? Here’s what’s next
Follow our guide on how to put music on an MP3 player to copy them over. If you also buy music on Amazon, see how to get Amazon Music as MP3. You can find every other tool in our free audio converter collection.
Last updated: September 2026
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