This wikiHow teaches you how to download the music you love from Spotify by converting your Spotify playlist into a YouTube playlist, then downloading and converting YouTube videos into MP3 files. Music files can't be extracted directly from Spotify so you'll have to use a service with content that's easier to extract.
Step
Part 1 of 4: Using Soundiiz to Convert Playlists
Step 1. Create a playlist containing the songs you want to extract on Spotify
Keep in mind that you can't extract music directly without manually recording internet sound while the music is playing. Therefore, the easiest way to extract music is to convert a Spotify playlist into a YouTube playlist and download music from the list.
- Go to the Spotify website and sign in to your account.
- Create a new playlist and name it as " YouTube " or " Convert " (for easy identification).
- Add all the music you want to extract to a new playlist. You may find it difficult to match unknown tracks if the song is not available on YouTube. However, most of the music on Spotify can be easily matched.
Step 2. Visit the Soundiiz website
Soundiiz is a service that allows you to transfer playlists from one music streaming service to another.
Step 3. Click the Sign Up button
You need to create a free account to use the playlist converter feature.
Step 4. Create an account
You can use one of the supported social media services to quickly create an account, or enter an email address and create a password to create an account using the standard method. Both methods can still be followed to create a free account.
Step 5. Click the Spotify button on the Soundiiz web app
You can see this menu button on the left side of the screen.
Step 6. Click Connect
Step 7. Enter your Spotify account login information
Soundiiz still won't see/save your account login information.
Step 8. Click OKAY to confirm
Spotify account is now linked with Soundiiz.
Step 9. Click the YouTube button on Soundiiz
By connecting your account to YouTube, Soundiiz can send new playlists to your YouTube channel.
Step 10. Click Connect
Step 11. Select or sign in to Google account
You need to have a YouTube channel linked to a Google account. This channel is created automatically when you sign in to YouTube using that Google account.
Step 12. Search playlist from Spotify
You can see all the playlists of the linked accounts in the main frame/window of the Soundiiz site. Find the Spotify playlist you want to convert.
Step 13. Click the Convert button next to the playlist
You'll see this button to the right of the playlist name, next to the "…" button. The “Convert” button looks like a small box with an arrow pointing to a large square.
Step 14. Click YouTube on the “Destination Platform” section
This option instructs Soundiiz to create a new playlist on YouTube with the appropriate tracks.
Step 15. Click Save Configuration
After that, the tracks in the playlist will be displayed.
Step 16. Click Confirm Tracklist to match all tracks
You can scroll through the list and deselect the songs you don't want included in the matching process.
Step 17. Wait for Soundiiz to finish matching the Spotify playlist with the videos on YouTube
Soundiiz will search for suitable entries and add each entry to a new playlist on YouTube. If there is a track that cannot be matched, it will not appear in the YouTube playlist.
- Scanning larger/longer playlists takes longer.
- Once your Spotify playlist is converted to a YouTube playlist, you're ready to install the necessary programs to download and convert YouTube videos to MP3 files. However, the process of installing the program on a Windows computer is different from the process of installing it on a Mac computer.
Part 2 of 4: Installing youtube-dl (Windows)
Step 1. Visit youtube-dl website
youtube-dl is an open-source command line program that can download YouTube videos and playlists. It's not the most intuitive option, but it's free to use and doesn't contain viruses, malware, or other unwanted programs. This program is developed and managed by the community and does not last long.
Step 2. Click the Windows executable link
This link is in the opening paragraph displayed on the page. The youtube-dl.exe file will be downloaded to your computer after a while.
Step 3. Open the “Users” folder
This folder is the main/parent folder of your Windows user account and contains folders such as “Documents”, “Pictures”, “Downloads”, and other media directories. The main location of this folder is C:\Users\username.
Step 4. Copy the youtube-dl.exe file to the “User” folder
After that, you can run the program from the Command Prompt without having to change other directories.
Step 5. Visit the FFmpeg website
This is another open source program that allows youtube-dl to convert downloaded YouTube videos to MP3 format. After installing FFmpeg, you cannot use it directly. Like youtube-dl, FFmpeg does not contain malware or additional programs.
Step 6. Click the Windows logo
This logo is in the "More downloading options" section.
Step 7. Click the Windows Builds button
Step 8. Click the Download FFmpeg button
This option works on most modern Windows operating systems. If you are using an older computer, you will need to check if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows.
Step 9. Open the ZIP file once it's finished downloading
You can usually find this file at the bottom of your browser once it's finished downloading or in the “Downloads” folder.
Step 10. Double click the ffmpeg-### folder
The full name of the folder may differ depending on the version of FFmpeg you downloaded.
Step 11. Double click the bin folder
Step 12. Select the three EXE files and drag them to the “User” folder
The files will then be in the same directory as the youtube-dl.exe file.
Step 13. Press the key combination Win+R and type cmd to open Command Prompt
youtube-dl is now installed and ready to use via Command Prompt.
Part 3 of 4: Installing youtube-dl (Mac)
Step 1. Click the “Go” menu from the desktop
youtube-dl is a command line program that can download YouTube videos. This program can be used for free and is open-source. Also, youtube-dl is developed by a community that doesn't make any profit from its development. This is the only download option that does not contain ads, malware, or other privacy intrusions.
Step 2. Click the “Utilities” option
Step 3. Open Terminal from “Utilities” folder
Step 4. Enter the command to install Homebrew
This option is an open source package manager that controls/manages "homebrewed" applications, including youtube-dl.
Type /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" and press Return
Step 5. Enter the user password if prompted
You may be asked to enter a password before proceeding to the next step, depending on the security settings applied.
Step 6. Enter the command to install youtube-dl
Once Homebrew is installed, you can use it to download and install youtube-dl:
Type brew install youtube-dl and press Return
Step 7. Enter the command to install FFmpeg
This is another open source program that youtube-dl uses to convert downloaded videos into MP3 format. Once installed, you are ready to use youtube-dl to download YouTube playlists from a Terminal window.
Type brew install ffmpeg and press Return
Part 4 of 4: Downloading Playlists
Step 1. Open YouTube in a browser
You need to fetch/copy the URL of the playlist you want to download via with youtube-dl.
Step 2. Sign in to your YouTube account
Make sure you are logged into the same account as the account linked to Soundiiz.
Step 3. Click the desired playlist in the “Library” menu segment
You can see this playlist on the left side of the screen. When the playlist is clicked, you will see a list of all the videos stored in it.
Step 4. Bookmark playlist URL
Make sure all addresses in the address bar are marked.
Step 5. Copy the marked address
Press Ctrl+C or Cmd+C, or right-click the address and select "Copy".
Step 6. Return to the Command Prompt or Terminal window
Step 7. Type the command youtube-dl and paste the address
Enter the following command and replace the playlistAddress entry with the URL of the playlist to paste:
Step 8. youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 playlistAddress
Step 9. Press Enter. key or Return to execute the command.
Step 10. Wait until youtube-dl finishes downloading and processing the song
This process can take a while if the playlist contains a lot of songs or you are on a slow internet connection. youtube-dl will download each video in the list and convert it to MP3 format for play in the audio player.
Step 11. You can cancel the download using the key combination Ctrl+C or Cmd+C.
Step 12. Locate the newly downloaded MP3 file
The new MP3 files will be saved in the “User” folder, the folder that also contains the youtube-dl program file. You can add MP3 files to your music player library, move them to another device, or burn/copy them to discs.
