YouTube Music Downloader

🎧 Turn public YouTube links into saved audio files

YouTube Music Downloader is for creators, catalog teams, analysts, and developers who already have public YouTube Music or YouTube URLs. It saves audio to Apify storage and returns a download link with the title, artist or channel, duration, thumbnail, source identity, file details, and available engagement metadata.

• Use a Video to MP3 Converter to save audio from known public YouTube watch URLs.
• Convert Video to Audio in M4A, AAC, Opus, FLAC, WAV, Vorbis, or ALAC for format-specific workflows.
• Run a URL to MP3 Converter batch for public Shorts and youtu.be links.
• Build an MP3 Converter Download workflow with file links and source metadata.
• Download Music MP3 files while preserving each submitted URL, title, channel, duration, and thumbnail.

📊 Data you can export

Each successfully saved audio file creates one dataset row. Failed, private, unavailable, invalid, protected, or unsupported URLs are skipped rather than saved as placeholder rows.

• submittedUrl — the exact input URL that produced the row.
• videoId — the YouTube video ID.
• title — the source-backed track or video title.
• channelName and channelUrl — artist or channel details when available.
• durationSeconds — duration in seconds when available.
• thumbnailUrl — the best available source thumbnail URL.
• audioUrl — the Apify storage URL for the saved audio file.
• audioFormat — the actual saved format.
• audioBitrateKbps and fileSizeBytes — details of the saved file.
• uploadDate, likeCount, and commentCount — source metadata when available.

Use submittedUrl and videoId to trace every successful file back to its input and YouTube source. Optional source metadata can be null when YouTube does not expose it.

🚀 How to run the Actor

1. Open the Actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more direct public YouTube Music track, YouTube watch, Shorts, or youtu.be URLs.
3. Choose an audio format and quality.
4. Start the run.
5. Open the dataset and use audioUrl to access each saved file.

For a first run, keep the prefilled URL and default options, then inspect the dataset before adding your own URL list.

🔧 Input

Field	Required	Description
urls	Yes	Direct public YouTube Music track URLs, YouTube watch URLs, Shorts URLs, or youtu.be links. Each entry can be a request-list object with a url field.
format	No	mp3, m4a, aac, opus, flac, wav, vorbis, alac, or auto. The default is mp3; auto currently saves MP3.
quality	No	best, 320, 256, 128, or 64. This is a target; source audio limits the actual quality.

{
  "urls": [
    { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=avP3YCQiJPc" },
    { "url": "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" }
  ],
  "format": "mp3",
  "quality": "best"
}

Submit direct track or video links. The Actor does not expand playlists, albums, radio queues, recommendations, or searches, and it cannot access content that requires a YouTube account.

📦 Output

{
  "submittedUrl": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=avP3YCQiJPc",
  "videoId": "avP3YCQiJPc",
  "title": "Kun Anta",
  "channelName": "Humood AlKhudher",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexample",
  "durationSeconds": 241,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/avP3YCQiJPc/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "audioUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/store-id/records/avP3YCQiJPc.mp3",
  "audioFormat": "mp3",
  "audioBitrateKbps": 128,
  "fileSizeBytes": 3891200,
  "uploadDate": "2022-05-31",
  "likeCount": 73100,
  "commentCount": 818
}

The dataset can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML, or read through the Apify API.

💰 Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You are charged $0.75 for each successfully saved downloadable audio track. Invalid, private, unavailable, unsupported, protected, or failed URLs do not create track rows and are not charged as downloaded tracks.

🔌 Integrations

• Call the Actor through the Apify API for repeatable URL batches.
• Schedule runs for recurring lists of known links.
• Send completed runs through webhooks or connect Apify with Make and Zapier.
• Export dataset rows to cloud storage, spreadsheets, BI tools, or your own pipeline.

❓ FAQ

📜 Does it expand a playlist, album, or radio URL?

No. Add the direct track or video URLs you want processed. Playlist, album, radio, search, and recommendation expansion are outside this Actor's scope.

🔎 What happens if one URL is invalid or unavailable?

Each URL is processed independently. A rejected or failed URL is logged and omitted from the dataset, while successful URLs from the same list can still produce files.

🎚️ Does choosing 320 kbps improve low-quality source audio?

No. Quality is a conversion target, not a promise of additional source detail. The actual output remains limited by the audio YouTube provides, and audioBitrateKbps reports the saved file's calculated average bitrate.

🎬 Does it download video files or captions?

No. It produces audio files and source metadata. It does not save video, captions, comments, or thumbnails as separate media files.

🔑 Do I need a YouTube API key, cookies, login, or proxy?

No. Submit public direct URLs; the Actor does not ask you for YouTube credentials or your own proxy service. It does not access private, members-only, purchased, or other account-gated content.

🌍 Does it bypass regional or rights restrictions?

No. Availability varies by source item and region, and routing does not guarantee access to restricted content. Unavailable files are skipped.

⚖️ May I download any public track?

Use the Actor only for content you own, have permission to process, or are otherwise allowed to download under applicable law and source terms. The Actor does not provide rights clearance.

🔌 Why not use the official YouTube APIs?

Official APIs can support metadata workflows, but they do not provide the saved audio-file output offered here. Use this Actor when you already have public direct links and need stored audio plus traceable metadata.

📝 Changelog

• 0.1: Initial release.

🆘 Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, file a ticket and I'll fix or implement it in less than 24h 🫡

🔗 Related Actors

• Spotify Downloader ↗ — Resolve public Spotify track URLs or searches into metadata, media links, and optional MP3 files in Apify storage.
• SoundCloud MP3 Downloader ↗ — Resolve public SoundCloud tracks, profiles, playlists, or searches into playable media links and track metadata.
• TikTok Audio Downloader ↗ — Save audio from known public TikTok video URLs with creator and engagement context.
• YouTube Shorts Downloader ↗ — Get direct video and audio links plus format details from public Shorts URLs.
• YouTube Region Restriction Checker ↗ — Check allowed and blocked countries for public YouTube videos before a regional workflow.

Made with ❤️ by Maxime Dupré