Python Hack: How to Download YouTube Video as Audio

In this article, I will show how you can use python to download a YouTube video as audio in a matter of few seconds using youtube-dl python wrapper.

Instead of using an online extension with accumulated ads like savenet, why not use your python skills to build your own downloader now.

Requirements

For you to be able to completely follow this tutorial, you're supposed to have youtube-dl installed on your machine.

Installation

pip install youtube_dl

Basics of youtube-dl

youtube-dl is a command-line tool for downloading videos from Youtube and other video sites, it provides a wrapper for python to directly use its functionality within code.

YouTube-dl provides a direct way to download the audio from Youtube by specifying the format of output we want for to next command which is downloading.

Downloading YouTube video as audio

from youtube_dl import YoutubeDL
audio_downloder = YoutubeDL({'format':'bestaudio'})
audio_downloader.extract_info(link to the video)

That's how youtube-dl really makes our life easier, from the above concept you can build your own GUI YouTube downloader using your favorite framework ranging from Tkinter to PyQT

Below is a sample command line app that runs an app for downloading YouTube-audio that runs on top youtube-dl, you can twist it the way you want it.

app.py

from youtube_dl import YoutubeDL
audio_downloader = YoutubeDL({'format':'bestaudio'})
while True:

    try:
      
        print('Youtube Downloader'.center(40, '_'))
      
      URL = input('Enter youtube url :  ')
      
      audio_downloader.extract_info(URL)
    
    except Exception:
      
        print("Couldn\'t download the audio")
    
    finally:
      
        option = int(input('\n1.download again \n2.Exit\n\nOption here :'))
      
      if option!=1:
  
            break

When you run the above code it will automatically begin downloading the audio from the YouTube video link you provided If available.

Well that's the end of our tutorial, Follow me on Twiter

I recommend you to also read this ;

In case of any suggestion or comment, drop it in the comment box and I will get back to you ASAP

Previously published at https://kalebujordan.com/build-python-youtube-audio-downloader/