How To Extract Audio From FLV Files [Mac Only]

extract audio from flv I’m not an advocate of piracy but here’s a cool idea to grab songs off YouTube. As you may know, YouTube has a huge collection of music videos. Sometimes, I’d watch a music video over and over again just to listen to the song. I’ve just found a nifty application which will extract the audio from FLV files (YouTube videos).

Most sites serve their videos as FLV (Flash Video) files. I’ll just be using YouTube as an example. Video files from YouTube are generally in 2 formats: FLV and MP4. Normal quality videos are formatted in FLV and high quality videos are formatted in MP4.

Contained within a flash video are the video and audio tracks. Using iExtractMP3, the audio track can be split from any FLV file. The perk of using this particular application is: no transcoding is performed when extracting the audio – meaning that there is no loss in quality.

That’s right, iExtractMP3 only grabs the audio, whatever the format (AAC or MP3) from the video file. And it does it amazingly fast too. It managed to extract the audio of a 3 minute long video in only 4 seconds.

And you don’t need to be a brainiac to use it, either. Simply download videos from YouTube, we’ve covered several methods here at MakeUseOf:

And drop the FLV file into iExtractMP3, select a destination and click ‘Extract’.

iextractmp3 - how to extract audio from flv file

how to extract audio from youtube

If you fancy an online method of exactly the same procedure, Karl has the low-down.

iExtractMP3 is Universal Binary and will work on Mac OS X 10.4 and onwards. Here is the original website in Japanese.

Oh and for those of you who prefer web apps, you may try VidToMP3, an online video to MP3 converter.

Do you know of any other Mac (or Windows) application which can extract audio from FLV files? Share them in the comments!


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Jackson Chung

Jackson Chung, M.D. is the Associate Editor for MakeUseOf. You may get in touch with him via email. Find Jackson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google +

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Hide 17 Comments

  • Zachary February 22, 2009
    0 likes

    ffmpeg -i [input flv] -acodec copy [output mp3/aac]

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    • Diogo Cuba Guedes de Moraes June 25, 2009
      0 likes

      Zachary, I understand this command must be used on Terminal but I don’t how to use it. Would you mid to explain it?

      | Like
  • sabina February 22, 2009
    0 likes

    Add the word kick to your youtube URL link !
    kickyoutube…
    and extract whatever you want from the video !

    | Like
    • tom June 18, 2009
      0 likes

      thanks, this is the best method i’ve found

      | Like
  • Nicky February 22, 2009
    0 likes

    I know this mac video converter can also extract audio from flv video to mp3 or aac on Mac, it works pretty well for me.
    macvideoconverter.mac-dvd.com

    | Like
  • Jackson February 23, 2009
    0 likes

    Actually there is another hack not requiring any additional software except Quicktime Pro. Open the FLV file with Q Pro and from the Window menu click on Show Movie Properties. You can then extract the audio track and Export as a sound file.

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    • tonixtonix February 11, 2010
      0 likes

      This method worked the best, even using the free quicktime, not the pro version. thank you!

      | Like
  • sam February 23, 2009
    0 likes

    Nice Article. It was very helpful for me. I can increase my knowledge about website design and development blog.

    | Like
  • Alberto February 25, 2009
    0 likes

    Users of Firefox on all platforms can use the “Media Converter” extension for this task. It works with most video sites, just click on the icon and it opens a wizard with step by step instruction to save a copy of the video in any format you want, or to extract the audio only in a variety of formats.

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    • Chris February 1, 2010
      0 likes

      Where is “Media Converter” in Firefox 3.5.7?

      | Like
  • Jeff July 29, 2009
    0 likes

    Useful info, if you wanna download video from YouTube for mac, i know Get Tube is the only tool for this job…

    if for windows, i althrough use this cool YouTube video converter to extrct audio from FLV video,easily and quickly.

    Guide: “How to convert youtube video to mp3…

    | Like
  • MJ August 14, 2009
    0 likes

    I use MPEG Streamclip squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html and just select Export Audio under File menu. Exports as AIFF on some vlf files that iExtractmp3 couldn’t manage.

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  • elina October 22, 2009
    0 likes

    I use the uSeesoft Audio Converter for Mac
    it can also extract audio from video files including MPG, MPEG, MPEG2, MP4, M4V, RM, RMVB, WMV, ASF, MKV, MPV, AVI, 3GP, 3G2, FLV, MPV, MOD, TOD and convert one video format to any other audio format, such as converting MP4 to MP3, converting FLV to WAV, converting MKV to AAC, etc.
    http://www.useesoft.com/video-converters/audio-converter-mac.html

    | Like
  • shirleyyang October 29, 2009
    0 likes

    Well, i enjoy this (mac-video-converter.net) MAC Video Converter, which can extract audio from all the video files including FLV, AVI, MOV, etc fast and easily!

    | Like
  • Ajmol November 28, 2009
    0 likes

    Thanks for the tip! It works very well!

    Keep the good work up!

    Cheers

    | Like
  • tracyjump December 6, 2009
    0 likes

    For windows user, Here I find another Video Conversion Software which could convert between all popular Video formats ( AVI, MKV, MP4, WMV, FLV, MPEG etc.) that support all popular portable media players (such as Zune/Zune HD, iPod/iPhone and PSP) and the latest iPod Nano 5G, iPod Touch 3, iPhone 3GS/OS 3.1.

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  • pengsz January 6, 2010
    0 likes

    thanks
    here i know a iMoviesoft Audio Converter for Mac
    it can extract audio from video files including MPEG, MP4, M4V, MPG, MPEG2, WMV, ASF, MKV, MPV, AVI, 3GP, 3G2, FLV, MOD, TOD, such as converting MP4 to MP3, MKV to AAC, etc.

    | Like