#How to download an MP3 track from a YouTube video
You can also download the mp3 directly from youtube without converting using ffmpeg

`youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 <video URL>`

From the online help:
```
-x, --extract-audio        convert video files to audio-only files (requires
                           ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
```

Bear in mind as well that youtube-dl defaults to using avconv so you should consider specifying either avconv or FFmpeg at the commandline. From the online help:
```
--prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
                                 postprocessors (default)
--prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
                                 postprocessors
```
Further options for keeping the original video, adjusting the bitrate or quality of the audio and a few others can be seen by looking at youtube -h.