Can I directly download audio using youtube-dl?

Here is a recent article in webupd8.org that explains how to use youtube-dl to directly download audio instead of first downloading video+audio and then extracting audio using -x. Unfortunately, the search facility that Maythux asked for here isn't offered. But it is still worth a look:
Video Downloader youtube-dl Gets Support For Separate Audio And Video YouTube DASH Streams

Basically, download the latest version of youtube-dl from source or from the ppa offered in the link above but not from the Software Center.

Then, if you already have the video link ...

Run, as example: 

youtube-dl -F http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRIF4_WzU1w

This will list the various download formats available for this url (audio and video).

$ youtube-dl -F http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRIF4_WzU1w
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Downloading webpage
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Extracting video information
[info] Available formats for HRIF4_WzU1w:
format code extension resolution  note 
171         webm      audio only  DASH webm audio , audio@ 48k (worst)
140         m4a       audio only  DASH audio , audio@128k
160         mp4       192p        DASH video 
133         mp4       240p        DASH video 
134         mp4       360p        DASH video 
135         mp4       480p        DASH video 
17          3gp       176x144     
36          3gp       320x240     
5           flv       400x240     
43          webm      640x360     
18          mp4       640x360     (best)

Now, choose desired audio format. I went for 140

Run:

youtube-dl -f 140 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRIF4_WzU1w

$ youtube-dl -f 140 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRIF4_WzU1w
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Downloading webpage
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] HRIF4_WzU1w: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: Martin Luther King - I Have a Dream on August 28, 1963 [Sous-titres & Subtitles] [FULL SPEECH]-HRIF4_WzU1w.m4a
[download] 100% of 15.19MiB in 00:04

That's it.


From @xiota's comment, to download the best audio in m4a format:

$ youtube-dl -f 'bestaudio[ext=m4a]' 'http://youtu.be/hTvJoYnpeRQ'

I've missed it on the first reading, so I've decided to post the comment as an answer to make it more visible.


I have this alias to easily download any audio with better filenames:

$ alias | grep audio

alias youtube-dl-audio='youtube-dl --ignore-errors --output "%(title)s.%(ext)s" --extract-audio --audio-format mp3'

Audio quality: From the documentation: "By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you don't need to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by default.". So there's no need for --audio-quality 0 or -f bestaudio.

Updates: Download last version of youtube-dl. Avoid repo or ppa version so you can upgrade with youtube-dl -U (necessary quite often).

Currently our dev repository is taken down due to DMCA takedown notice by RIAA. Downloads still work as usual

To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:

sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

Albums: You can split the file into chunks/tracks with mp3split.

Error 403?: Add --rm-cache-dir.

Moreover

ytmdl: A simple script to get songs from YouTube in mp3 format with all tags from iTunes

MP3 Tagging: I’m still trying to find a reliable CLI tool to fix and tag all the generated mp3:

  • Beets (maybe with tracker cheatsheet and gnome-music?)
  • lltag
  • foobar2000

Tags:

Youtube Dl

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