Is downloading YouTube MP3s legal? It is a little complicated, and it all depends on many factors, mainly circling around copyright laws and the terms of service of YouTube. According to YouTube’s Terms of Service, users must not download content except when seeing a download button or link, or if they have explicit permission from the content owner. As the policy of YouTube tells, “you shall not download any Content unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content, or unless you have been specifically authorized by YouTube or the owner of the Content to do so.”.
This means that out of the plus 2 billion monthly users who make use of YouTube, a majority of them use it mainly for streaming. As of 2023, 80% of YouTube’s revenue comes from ads, which depend on users streaming content directly off the site. In other words, users who download content without permission circumvent the platform’s revenue model and maybe impacting their favorite content creators’ earnings. This illegal downloading can be cast as a form of breach of copyright and falls under the purview of the U.S. Copyright Act or similar legislations in other areas.
To this end, on several occasions in 2020, YouTube sued some sites for services offering downloads of YouTube videos and MP3s, acting very clearly against unlawful downloads. Services like Y2Mate, among others offering download capabilities without getting permission from YouTube, have indeed been under quite a lot of legal pressure.
Also, the Court of Justice in the European Union has ruled that services offering copies of works without content owner permission breach copyright. In this way, the abovementioned cases have established the legality that downloads from YouTube into MP3 format without permission are illegal.
In essence, MP3 downloading from YouTube is regarded as unlawful, except in cases where the platform or the owner of the content allows it. It is suggested that one should be cautious with services that offer download youtube mp3, as this might lead to a violation of the rules of copyright and some sort of legal penalty.