Audio Download Skill

Download audio from YouTube and Twitter/X links using yt-dlp.

Supported Platforms

• YouTube: Videos, Shorts, playlists
• Twitter/X: Posts with video/audio content

Supported Audio Formats

• MP3 (most compatible)
• M4A (AAC audio)
• WAV (uncompressed)
• FLAC (lossless)
• OGG (Vorbis/Opus)

Quality Options

• 0 or best – Best quality available
• 1 – High quality (~192kbps for MP3)
• 2 – Medium quality (~128kbps for MP3)
• 3 – Low quality (~64kbps for MP3)
• worst – Lowest quality available

Basic Usage

Download from YouTube

# Download as MP3 (best quality)
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<YOUTUBE_URL>"

# Download YouTube Shorts as M4A
yt-dlp -x --audio-format m4a --audio-quality 0 -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<SHORTS_URL>"

Download from Twitter/X

# Download audio from tweet as MP3
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<TWITTER_URL>"

Common Options

# List available formats (without downloading)
yt-dlp -F "<URL>"

# Download specific format code
yt-dlp -f <FORMAT_CODE> -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<URL>"

# Download with metadata/thumbnail
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --embed-metadata --embed-thumbnail -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<URL>"

Python Helper Script

For batch operations or playlists, use the helper script:

# Basic download
python {baseDir}/scripts/download.py "<URL>"

# Specify format and output directory
python {baseDir}/scripts/download.py "<URL>" --format mp3 --output ~/Downloads/audio

# Download with specific quality
python {baseDir}/scripts/download.py "<URL>" --format m4a --quality best

# Download first 3 items from playlist only
python {baseDir}/scripts/download.py "<PLAYLIST_URL>" --playlist-items 3

Output Template Variables

Use these variables in the -o output template:

• %(title)s – Video title
• %(uploader)s – Channel/username
• %(upload_date)s – Upload date (YYYYMMDD)
• %(duration)s – Duration in seconds
• %(id)s – Video ID
• %(ext)s – File extension

Example with custom naming:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -o "~/Downloads/audio/%(uploader)s - %(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s" "<URL>"

Troubleshooting

Update yt-dlp

If downloads fail, update yt-dlp to the latest version:

# If installed via brew
brew upgrade yt-dlp

# If installed via pip (ensure conda environment is activated)
conda activate default
pip install -U yt-dlp

Common Issues

“ffmpeg not found”: Install ffmpeg – it’s required for audio format conversion.

“Video unavailable”: Some videos may be region-restricted or require authentication.

Slow downloads: Add --concurrent-fragments 5 to download multiple fragments in parallel.