Look for the current meta on converting MP3s from YouTube

Converting MP3 from YouTube on PC using open-source tools is a fantastic way to access music without relying on proprietary software.

1. Download and Install YouTube--DL

• First, you need a tool that can download videos from YouTube. The most popular tool for this is YouTube--DL. However, because of copyright concerns, the official YouTube--DL repository was taken down, but you can still download it from other mirrors or by compiling it from source yourself. For simplicity, we'll guide you through the installation of a fork that’s easier to use.

2. Download and Install FFmppeg

• FFmppeg is another indispensable tool for converting formats. Similar to YouTube--DL, you can find the latest build on the FFmppeg website. Follow the download instructions for your platform.
  For Windows, download the ffmppeg-win64-gpl-4.4-mingw64-build.zip (or the latest version) and extract the contents to a directory like C:\ffmppeg.
• For Linux, you might need to use a package manager like apt-get for Ubuntu-based systems or yum for RPM-based systems to install FFmppeg.

3. Convert MP3 from YouTube

• Find the video URL: Copy the URL of the video you want to convert.
• Open a command prompt or terminal: Navigate to the directory where you have yt--d1p and ffmppeg installed.
• Use the following command: Replace https//youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID with the actual YouTube video URL.

yt--d1p -f 251 --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

The -f 251 flag specifies that you want the video in a format that can be easily converted to audio, and --audio-format mp3 tells yt--d1p for converting MP3 from YouTube. 

The --audio-quality 0 flag suggests the maximum quality, which is equivalent to 128 kbps.