Can I download youtube music to computer as mp3?

I had encountered a similar problem before and wanted to download Music from YouTube to computer Windows 11, but the official methods did not provide a direct download method (especially MP3 / FLAC). However, after some consideration, I have found four methods that do not require third-party tools to meet various needs, and I would like to try them out.

Method 1: Using the F12 developer tool in the Edge/Chrome browser
Target audience: People who want to download lossless but need the technical basics.

1. Open YouTube Music and play the song you want to download.
2. Press F12 to open the Developer Tools (DevTools) and switch to the “Network” tab.
3. Select the “Media” filter and locate the audio file in .m4a or .webm format.
4. Right-click to open in a new tab, then right-click and select “Save As” to download locally.

Optional: If converting to MP3, you can use the media player that comes with Windows to convert the format.

✅ Advantages: original audio stream, lossless sound quality, direct download.
Cons: Requires a bit of technical manipulation, batch downloads are more cumbersome.

Method 2: Record using Windows built-in voice recorder
For: People who need MP3s and only a few songs, follow steps can hep you to download music from youtube to computer.

1. Open the Windows Voice Recorder (press Win + S and search for “audio recorder”).
2. Play a song from YouTube Music and tap to start recording.
3. Wait for the song to finish playing, then click to stop recording and save the file.
4. Edit the file name and information manually (some versions of the recorder support saving MP3s).

✅ Advantages: 100% easy to use without any additional tools.
⚠ Disadvantages: recording time is equal to the length of the song, metadata cannot be saved (manual editing is required).

None of these methods require additional software. I hope this helps!