How to Convert YouTube to M4A with High Quality (Incl. Free)

Are you are interested in downloading interview, speech, news reports, radio shows, music, etc. from YouTube as audio for listening purposes? While there are many YouTube to MP3 downloaders available, MP3 is not an ideal output format if you care about audio quality and size.

Converting YouTube to M4A audio is recommended since M4A provides higher quality at a much smaller file size. And the downloaded M4A files can be played in iTunes, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, or anywhere. Wonder what M4A is and how to convert YouTube to M4A on Mac, Windows, and mobile devices? Follow us to resolve your doubts now.

 Cisdem VideoPaw

Best YouTube to M4A Converter for Mac/Windows

• Download and convert YouTube to M4A, MP3, AAC, WAV, MP4, MKV, etc.
• Quickly convert multiple YouTube audio files to M4A at once
• Keep M4A files in original quality after downloading
• Download audio and video along with subtitles from 10000+ sites
• Download massive 4K, Full HD, and HD videos
• Download the whole YouTube playlist in one go
• Convert local or downloaded videos to 300+ formats
• Choose audio bitrates, ranging from 32kbps to 384kbps
• Edit & enhance videos via watermark, crop, effects, rotate, and more
• Extra: compress downloaded YouTube audio; rip DVDs/Blu-rays

Free Download   Free Download

What’s M4A?

M4A is just an audio file format. You've probably seen it in Apple's iTunes store. It's built on MPEG-4 and uses either AAC or Apple Lossless (ALAC) encoding.

Apple came up with M4A back in the day to tell audio files apart from video files (those end with .mp4). Since then, most media players have added support for it. M4A is DRM-free, you can feel free to convert and edit the file on your device. Podcasters also use it for distributing shows.

Why Download YouTube as M4A Instead of MP3?

Simple reason: M4A is one of the native formats YouTube uses (along with OPUS).

When you grab audio from YouTube as M4A with dedicated software or yt-dlp, you're getting the original stream. Online YouTube to M4A converters are the exception, most of them re-encode the audio.

If you download YouTube audio to MP3, you're compressing it twice. YouTube already compressed it once (to AAC in an M4A container).

Convert YouTube to M4A on Mac and Windows with a Reliable App

Cisdem VideoPaw is an excellent YouTube to M4A converter that comes with a suite of superior features. It allows you to download videos in M4A format from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, and 10000+ websites only by URL. It is pretty safe to download online videos or music with a few clicks.

The app helps you convert video and audio files from one format to another, like MP4 to MP3, FLV to MP4, MOV to WMV, WMA to MP3, FLV to M4A, H264 to MP4, etc. Unlike other converters, it does not lose quality and works faster.

Additional functions that make Cisdem VideoPaw the ultimate video tool include batch processing, disc ripping, video compression, video editing, screen recording, and more.

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Steps on how to convert YouTube to M4A on Mac or Windows:

Step 1. Run Cisdem VideoPaw

Launch the software. The main interface appears immediately, just select Video Downloader.

Step 2. Copy YouTube video URL and paste to VideoPaw

Visit youtube.com and locate the video you intend to download. Copy the URL and paste it into the download box of the Cisdem VideoPaw. Click the “+” button to analyze the input video.

To download multiple YouTube videos at once, you can repeat the copy & paste steps or click "File > Add URLs..." at the top menu to add multiple YouTube videos to the download list.

Step 3. Choose M4A as the output format

Click the format dropdown and select M4A M4A as the output audio format for each video.

Step 4. Download YouTube videos

Click "Start" to download YouTube videos to M4A. When finished, click button to open the folder where the downloaded videos are stored.

Tip 1: Convert YouTube playlist to M4A

Cisdem VideoPaw also supports downloading a whole YouTube Playlist in one go. To download and convert YouTube playlist to M4A. Just find the url of the YouTube playlist, copy and paste the url to Cisdem VideoPaw. Then follow the same steps above.

Tip 2: Convert YouTube to other audio formats

Not only can the software convert YouTube to M4A, but also convert YouTube to many other formats you like.

1. Drag the downloaded videos to the Video Converter panel.
2. Click on the format icon to get a list of output file formats.
3. Proceed to “Audio” to choose any other audio format.

Tip 3: Customize “Settings”

The software supports more conversion settings that include the ability to change the audio quality, encoder, sample rate, and channel. Click the gear icon to open the “Settings” window and adjust the audio parameters.

Use the Free Online YouTube to M4A Converters

If you don’t use video converters very often, then you can give a try on free online tools. It also assists us to convert YT to M4A with fast speed. Check out the best YouTube converters online below.

Tuberipper.net

It's a free online YouTube to M4A converter, letting you download and convert YouTube videos to M4A, AAC, MP3, 3GP, MP4, MKV, F4V, and WebM. It doesn’t require an account or install extra software. Make sure to enter a valid URL, it allows you to fetch audio, video and muted video source.

However, sometimes, it may fail to analyze the entered URL for uncertain reason. In this case, you need to ask help for another useful tool for downloading.

1. Find a video you wish to download on YouTube and get its link from the address line.

2. Visit tuberipper.com, and input your copied link into the specified field.

3. Click or tap on “enter” on your keyboard to parse the URL.

4. When done, it shows you 3 options to download: extract audio (m4a), extract video (mp4) and extract muted video (mp4).

5. Click “extract audio (m4a)” to download YouTube to M4A immediately.

ClipConverter.CC

It's a steady web-based YouTube to M4A converter that supports converting online videos or local files to 8 different formats, including M4A, MP3, AAC, MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, and MKV. It also ensures that you download videos in various SD, HD, and UHD resolutions, except for music videos.

However, this online tool sets some limits. It only allows 25 conversion minutes each day and 25 minutes of maximum conversion time per file. Plus, the maximum file to convert can’t exceed 1GB.

1. Open https://www.clipconverter.cc/2/ in your browser.
2. Copy a video URL from YouTube, and paste it into the “Video URL to Download” bar.
3. Click the “Continue” button.
4. Select the video quality from “Detected Media”.
5. Choose M4A as the conversion format.
6. Edit the “Conversion Options” and click “Start”.

Convert YouTube to M4A through yt-dlp

yt-dlp is a command-line tool and an actively maintained fork of youtube-dl. It doesn’t have a graphical interface, only can use it to download online videos with commands.

Not much to say, let's see how to download YouTube to M4A.

1. Install yt-dlp to your computer, and initiate Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Mac.
2. Enter a command: yt-dlp -f m4a "YouTube_URL".
3. Press the Enter on keyboard.

Tip:

• To specify the M4A audio bitrate, use the command: yt-dlp -x -f m4a --audio-quality 0 "YouTube_URL". You can set the value of --audio-quality from 0 (best) to 9 (worst) for VBR. By default, it’s 5.
• To save a YouTube playlist to M4A, enter yt-dlp -x -f m4a --yes-playlist "Playlist_URL".
• To get only specific items, enter yt-dlp -x --audio-format m4a --playlist-items 1,7,10-20 "Playlist_URL", means it will download the 1st, 7th, and 10th through 20th videos from the playlist.

Convert YouTube to M4A on iPhone and Android with Apps

On iPhone

The iOS app Documents by Readdle is one of the best YouTube to M4A converters even though it doesn't sound like one. Essentially, it is the Finder for iOS, a file hub that holds all your digital media and content. There is a web browser built into the app, enabling you to save YouTube M4A audio to your iPhone. Overall, Documents by Readdle acts as a file manager and media file player/downloader/converter.

Steps to convert YouTube to M4A on iPhone:

1. Download Documents by Readdle in App Store and open it.
2. tap the bottom-right icon labeled Browser.
3. Type “https://ytbdownload.com/” in the search bar and tap "Go".
4. Tap the "YouTube to M4A" option.
5. Paste the video URL you copied from YouTube into the search bar. Tap on "Download" to parse the URL.
6. Scroll down, and tap the new "Download" button that appears. Choose the M4A audio you want to download.
7. When finished, check the M4A file in the "Downloads" folder.

On Android

Video MP3 Converter is a simple and free tool that can convert the downloaded YouTube videos to some popular video and audio formats such as M4A, MP3, AAC, MP4, 3GP, FLV, and so on. It helps users attain high-quality sound easily and allows users to reset the converted file name and location for a better storage.

Besides, it offers a built-in video editor for users to do some editing tasks without quality loss such as trimming, cropping, merging the files. However, one of its shortcomings is that it contains ads in the app, which may affect your viewing experience.

Steps to convert YouTube to M4A on Android:

1. Download and install Video converter to MP3 from play market.
2. Open it, enter the copied URL from YouTube for parsing.
3. Choose audio icon in the convert type and choose AAC as the output format. Plus, you can choose the bit as your need, like 245, 192 and 128 kb/s (VBR).
4. Besides, you can click the information button to edit the details of the file like title, and click save as button to choose a suitable storage destination.
5. Once done, click the red “convert” at the bottom and you will get a M4A file.
   

FAQs

Can I get 320kbps M4A from YouTube?

No. YouTube does not provide 320kbps audio. The platform's native audio streams max out at around 128-256kbps AAC (M4A) for standard videos, with premium content reaching up to 256kbps for YouTube Music subscribers.

Can I Convert MP3 to M4A with iTunes (or the new Music app)

Most of the online YouTube rippers and downloaders download music in MP3 format. How can we convert those MP3 files to M4A? if you want to convert MP3 to M4A format, the easiest and quickest way to do so is to use video converter software. You will also find plenty of online platforms that will allow you to convert the format in no time. And for Mac users, iTunes can also convert MP3 to MP4, Here is How:

1. Open iTunes or the Music App >> Go Preferences and navifate to files >> import settings.

2. Change it to M4A Encoder and click OK.

3. Add MP3 files and in the menu click file >> convert >> create M4A.

4. You can then find the M4A file in your Music library and don't worry that you old MP3 file will still be there.

Can I Merge M4A files together as One large file?

You can use Cisdem VideoPaw to merge M4A files into one. Add M4A files to the app, arrange the order of the files, and click the merge button in the lower right corner of the interface to complete the merge.

Conclusion

Admittedly, online YouTube to M4A converters brought great convenience to us. But I still won’t highly recommend them to all of you due to the limitation of Internet connection, converting quality and other issues. From my aspect, picking a piece of fabulous third-party software is a way of doing it once and for all.