What program to download youtube video/songs for free on Windows laptop?

[paulyron]

A while back, I used this program called YTD Video Downloader that i installed on my windows computer.  I would copy/paste the link of the youtube video... whether it was a video or song... then it would download it pretty fast.  Then i would i believe change the song format to where i could play it on winamp on my computer.  Then i transferred a lot of these songs to my iphone via itunes to play music there.

 

 

But a while back, I noticed the youtubedownloader program no longer worked.  Im not sure if it asked me to upgrade to the new version or not.  

 

 

But can someone tell me what software/program i can use on my windows ten laptop where i could download videos/songs and save them on my laptop?  And also use it to transfer to itunes and then to my iphone?  Thing is i want to make sure the program is safe and doesn't have malware which is what im concerned about.  I know the YTD Video Downloader program a while back i used had no issues with my computer.

[paulyron]

I'm confused.  But I thought lot of people download songs on youtube and then save it on their computer and then transfer to their iphone using itunes?  Don't the majority of people do this?  Can't imagine people paying a dollar for every song they want to download.  And im talking about old songs.... not like new songs.  

 

 

Or do people pay a monthly fee to stream music then?  I ask this because when im on the computer during the day, i would play lot of music from youtube... even made many playlists etc.  But the big difference is its playing the music via the chrome browser.  Like i wouldnt mind downloading the songs and playing them on winamp especially if say im using my data tethered on my iphone for my laptop for example.

 

 

 

[Entropy.]

8 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I'm confused.  But I thought lot of people download songs on youtube and then save it on their computer and then transfer to their iphone using itunes?  Don't the majority of people do this?  Can't imagine people paying a dollar for every song they want to download.  And im talking about old songs.... not like new songs.  

 

 

Or do people pay a monthly fee to stream music then?  I ask this because when im on the computer during the day, i would play lot of music from youtube... even made many playlists etc.  But the big difference is its playing the music via the chrome browser.  Like i wouldnt mind downloading the songs and playing them on winamp especially if say im using my data tethered on my iphone for my laptop for example.

 

 

 

Most people use streaming services and pay a monthly fee, or just use a streaming service, such as Spotify or YouTube/YT music- Obviously the free versions, lol. Iirc most youtube videos are under copyright protection, which makes it *technically* illegal to download them without something along the lines of proper licensing and/or express permission, neither of which you're going to realistically get, even if these policies aren't really enforced. Youtube will try to shut down these websites, but those who use them won't usually be punished for using them. If you have a youtube music app and membership you can "download" them but you don't have access to them outside of the app, and if your membership expires youtube doesn't give you access to them within the app, until you renew.

[Entropy.]

7 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I'm confused.  But I thought lot of people download songs on youtube and then save it on their computer and then transfer to their iphone using itunes?  Don't the majority of people do this?  Can't imagine people paying a dollar for every song they want to download.  And im talking about old songs.... not like new songs.  

 

 

Or do people pay a monthly fee to stream music then?  I ask this because when im on the computer during the day, i would play lot of music from youtube... even made many playlists etc.  But the big difference is its playing the music via the chrome browser.  Like i wouldnt mind downloading the songs and playing them on winamp especially if say im using my data tethered on my iphone for my laptop for example.

 

 

 

Some services however, will get around this by saying "If the user uses our service to download copyrighted content, we'll suspend their accounts and remove the song/video from out download lists, as long as it as pointed out to us, and we don't endorse the use of our service to download copyrighted content." So still illegal for the user, not so much the website.

[hirushaadi]

20 minutes ago, paulyron said:

A while back, I used this program called YTD Video Downloader that i installed on my windows computer.  I would copy/paste the link of the youtube video... whether it was a video or song... then it would download it pretty fast.  Then i would i believe change the song format to where i could play it on winamp on my computer.  Then i transferred a lot of these songs to my iphone via itunes to play music there.

 

 

But a while back, I noticed the youtubedownloader program no longer worked.  Im not sure if it asked me to upgrade to the new version or not.  

 

 

But can someone tell me what software/program i can use on my windows ten laptop where i could download videos/songs and save them on my laptop?  And also use it to transfer to itunes and then to my iphone?  Thing is i want to make sure the program is safe and doesn't have malware which is what im concerned about.  I know the YTD Video Downloader program a while back i used had no issues with my computer.

use y2mate.com with a adblocker!

[wONKEyeYEs]

24 minutes ago, paulyron said:

YTD Video Downloader

I don't trust those programs.

One could record the audio with Audacity.

[Rugg]

9 minutes ago, wONKEyeYEs said:

I don't trust those programs.

One could record the audio with Audacity.

The youtube-dl software hosted on github is open source and has tons of contributors. You can trust it.

Web based stuff I'd be suspcious of.

[Shammikit]

I use this thing called Free youtube downloader, its been a while since I downloaded this so i dnt remember where I got it from but I guess a quick google search will tell. This program gets the job done very well for me. You get to chose the video quality too. However I have noticed that videos that have been flagged for using copyright content cannot be downloaded using this. So im not sure if music can be downloaded from it.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Shammikit

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Programs, Apps and Websites

[paulyron]

12 hours ago, Rugg said:

The youtube-dl software hosted on github is open source and has tons of contributors. You can trust it.

Web based stuff I'd be suspcious of.

Can i download it from the official site?  Certain that is more safer than github right?  What is official site of it?

[Rugg]

6 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Can i download it from the official site?  Certain that is more safer than github right?  What is official site of it?

Their official site is hosted via GitHub pages too. There is essentially zero security risk to anything of it. Btw this tool is just command line based but its pretty simple to get going.

http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html

Or the github releases page

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/releases

All you have to do is type a command line this from the command line

youtube-dl.exe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFDmtjNiwSE

And it will grab a mp4 for you. There are many configuration options via command flags too. For more control you're going to want to look at the whole list of options. https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/tree/2021.02.10#output-template.

[paulyron]

Thanks.  But i thought that is strange that there is no official link.

[paulyron]

21 hours ago, Shammikit said:

I use this thing called Free youtube downloader, its been a while since I downloaded this so i dnt remember where I got it from but I guess a quick google search will tell. This program gets the job done very well for me. You get to chose the video quality too. However I have noticed that videos that have been flagged for using copyright content cannot be downloaded using this. So im not sure if music can be downloaded from it.

 

 

 

What is the official website that you downloaded this on?

[Shammikit]

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

 

What is the official website that you downloaded this on?

As I said, its been a while since I downloaded so I cant remember. Searching it now only brings up a download option from CNET downloads and it has flags for malware so I dont recommend downloading from them.

 

In this app there is a visit our website option from the help tab and it redirects here: https://vidd.ly/ 

 

I guessed they have changed their name. Maybe give it a try.

 

 

 

 

  

[Gamer4714]

You can use 4kdownload.It can download youtube video and can also download as audio

[paulyron]

19 hours ago, Gamer4714 said:

You can use 4kdownload.It can download youtube video and can also download as audio

 

 

Is it safe from malware and everything like that?  That is my major concern here.

[Gamer4714]

2 hours ago, paulyron said:

 

 

Is it safe from malware and everything like that?  That is my major concern here.

I've used it and I don't see any problem.

 

[paulyron]

Thoughts on this site?

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/xdman/