How to Convert YouTube to M4A on Mac: High Quality & Safe

Converting YouTube videos to M4A format can be a great way for Mac users to get high-quality audio that works perfectly with iTunes, iPhone, and other Apple devices or software. 

The challenge, however, lies in finding a efficient and workable solution to extract M4A audio from YouTube videos.

In this guide, we’ll highlight some of the best YouTube to M4A converters available, offering a mix of features and performance. By the end of this article, you should be able to select the an ideal YouTube to M4A converter for your needs.

 

Choose YouTube M4A Converter Based On Your Priority

• Need it Now: If you only need to download 1 or 2 audios, you can choose online video downloaders like X2Convert, YouTubetoMP3App, or MyVid to convert YouTube to M4A immediately.
• High Quality: If you need high audio quality for listening or editing, we recommend tools that download YouTube videos in original quality like iFunia YouTube Downloader.
• Playlists Downloading: To download a whole YouTube playlist and save it as M4A, you can use desktop tools that offer batch processing.
• Free Solution: Check the free tools section or just use online sites.
   

Batch Convert YouTube to M4A on Mac (Best for Playlists)

Why use this method

• Maintains Original Audio Quality (Original M4A).
• Downloads full Playlists/Channels in one click.

iFunia offers a YouTube to M4A converter that focuses on speed and quality. It is available for Windows and Mac. You can use it to extract high-quality audio from YouTube videos and save it in a quality of 1080p, 4K, or 8K. 

A great feature that iFunia YouTube Downloader can boast is downloading whole YouTube playlists and channels. It offers a full format option with the original video available in MP3, MP4, M4A, MOV, AAC, FLAC, etc. 

The developers are constantly making updates to the download module; anytime YouTube changes their algorithm, they will fix the problem within half a day.

Free Download macOS 10.13 or later Free Download Windows 11/10

How to Use iFunia YouTube Downloader to Download YouTube Videos as M4A?

Step 1: Find a YouTube video you want to download and copy the link in the address bar. 

Step 2: iFunia will automatically detect the URL you added, and you just need to click + to load the video file.

Step 3: After processing, the program will list all the available original video quality and format; choose M4A as the output format, and click the "Start" button to start downloading the YouTube video to M4A.

 

Free YouTube to M4A Converter for Mac

Any Video Converter Free

Any Video Converter Free is one of the best free YouTube to M4A converters for Mac. It bolsters 100+ websites, such as YouTube, Dailymotion, VEVO, Howcast, Niconico, Metacafe, etc. You can download videos from those 100+ sites and directly convert them to a wide range of formats.

1. Install Any Video Converter Free on your Mac computer, and then open it.
2. Copy the link to a YouTube video from your browser.
3. Back to the free converter, and switch to the Download Video.
4. From the right panel, select M4A as the output option. Check the box in front of Auto Convert Downloaded Videos.
5. Click the Add URL button in the bottom left corner. Your copied YouTube URL will be auto-added.
6. Click the OK button and wait for parsing.
7. After that, you will see a list of output options. Make sure to select the format of M4A. If you leave it as the default option, the software will download both MP4 and M4A files.
8. Hit OK and then click Start Download. The YouTube to M4A conversion on Mac will be started. Navigate to the Task tab to check the process.

However, the software has not been upgraded for a long time, so its interface and presets for devices are outdated. For example, the latest iPhone can only choose iPhone 6S Plus. Moreover, it’s slow to parse URLs and download videos.

 

YTD Video Downloader for Mac

YTD Video Downloader is one of the best free downloaders for Mac that’s able to download YouTube videos with a few clicks. It also supports other streaming websites, like Bing, YouKu, XVideos, RedTube, etc.

But it can’t save YouTube to M4A on Mac straightly. You can only set the output format as MP4, MP3, MOV, 3GP, WMV, and AVI. Don’t worry! Apple’s default video player enables you to export any video and audio to M4A.

1. Download, install, and open YTD Video Downloader on Mac.
2. Copy a YouTube URL. The app will detect it at once and auto paste the URL. If not, click the Paste URL.
3. Press Download, and check the download progress under the Activity.
4. Click the folder icon to find the YouTube video, and open it with QuickTime Player.
5. Go to the menu bar, click File > Export As > Audio Only.
6. Rename the M4A file and save it.

 

Top Free Online YouTube to M4A Converters (No Installation)

If you don’t wish to install an extra 3rd party video converter, you can try a free online YouTube to M4A converter for Mac. There are a number of web-based tools designed for YouTube download and conversion. This section will introduce 3 commonly used converters. Just pick your favorite one here.

YouTubetoMP3App.com

Although its name sounds like YouTube to MP3 converter, actually, it can also compatible with other portals like Vimeo, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram. Meanwhile, this converter lets you download YouTube to M4A, MP3, 3GP, F4V, MP4, MKV, and WebM. This online tool is very easy to use.

1. Head over to https://youtubetomp3app.com/.
2. Paste a video link you copied from YouTube.
3. Select the target format as .m4a.
4. Start the conversion.
5. Download your converted M4A audio.

 

X2Convert.com

It’s a fairly good online tool to convert YouTube to M4A, MP3, MP4, and WebM. The maximum resolution to stored as MP4 is 360p. If you desire to save to higher resolutions, you have to download YouTube as WebM. But WebM is not friendly to those videos with audio.

This online YouTube to M4A converter for Mac supports 20 languages. You can select the language you understand, such as English, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, and so on.

1. Go to https://x2convert.com/.
2. Copy & paste the YouTube link to the blank box.
3. In the options below, choose AUDIO.
4. Hit the green Download.
5. In the pop-up window, click Download again.

 

MyVid.Download

MyVid has the ability to convert & download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Dailymotion, Soundcloud, Kinopoisk, and other 100+ sites. Apart from downloading a single YouTube video, this online YouTube to M4A converter for Mac also lets you download the whole YouTube playlist.

Sometimes, however, you might fail to save the converted media file if you are not downloading them as MP4 or MP3.

1. Visit https://myvid.download/ in your browser.
2. Copy a YouTube video link, and paste it into the specified box.
3. Click the red GO.
4. Scroll down. You will find that all selectable output options are listed.
5. Download YouTube video to M4A online.

Pros and cons of online YouTube to M4A converter:

FAQ

Q1. Why choose M4A format instead of MP3? Which is better?

Answer: M4A offers better quality at smaller file sizes than MP3. YouTube especially uses M4A natively, which means saving YouTube videos as M4A will always give better quality than MP3. and converting YouTube to M4A will be much faster than MP3, as no re-encoding is required. 

 

Q2: Is it legal to convert YouTube videos to M4A?

Answer: It is against YouTube's Terms of Service to download and save YouTube videos you do not own. When using a YouTube to M4A converter, be sure to abide by YouTube's Terms of Service to avoid violating the law. 

 

Q3: Can I convert an entire YouTube playlist to M4A?

Answer: Most online video downloaders only download one link at a time; they also may have a limit on video length. Desktop software like iFunia YouTube Downloader is built exactly for this—you only need to add the link of the YouTube playlists and save it as M4A in one go.
 

Conclusion

It’s not difficult to find a YouTube to M4A converter for Mac, but not all are satisfying. We need to admit that there are some inevitable shortcomings of freeware and online converters. To download and convert YouTube videos without worries, a professional app is needed. I hope the above content will be helpful to you.