Cookie
VideoDuke Team, Inc. uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy. Click here to learn more.

Find the best Mac MP3 downloader

Videoduke logo
Top choice

VideoDuke

4.5 Rank based on 89+ users, Reviews(89)

Thanks to its extraordinary compression capabilities while not altering the audio quality of tracks, the MP3 format is now the standard for the entire world when it comes to high-quality tracks. And since absolutely all media players both online and offline are capable of reading MP3 players, downloading your favorite songs using this format is the best way to go.

If you’re looking for a good MP3 downloader for Mac or you are simply interested in other solutions than the one you are using now, keep reading this article as we will going to share with you the best MP3 downloader for Mac suggestions.

1. VideoDuke for Mac

Videoduke logo
VideoDuke
Requirements: OS X 10.12+. 55.99MB free space. Version 2.15.2.773. (30 Apr, 2024). 4.5 Rank based on 89+ users, Reviews(89)
Category: Video Downloaders for Mac

We present to you the very best Mac MP3 downloader available on the market right now. VideoDuke was designed specifically to deliver great results when it comes to downloading media online.

You can easily navigate the most popular platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, and others, directly from its interface and quickly locate the video you want to extract MP3 from and download it to your Mac.

Just check the ‘Audio’ tab of VideoDuke and start the download after selecting the quality of the file. Also, keep in mind that using VideoDuke you can easily get the album artwork, subtitles and even entire playlists and channels from YouTube. If, for any reason, you want to download the video from YouTube or any other streaming platform, VideoDuke can assist with that as well. An all-in-one tool that shouldn’t miss from your macOS.

icon pros Pros:

  • Simple to use
  • Smoothest experience browsing YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and TikTok in-app
  • Support for downloading playlist and channels from YouTube
  • Can download just audio from videos.

icon cons Cons:

  • Limited to two downloads on free trial.

Conclusion: Among all the products listed in this article, VideoDuke stands out. While other apps allow you to browse this Internet video downloader for Mac easily provides the smoothest experience doing so. Coupled with the impressive versatility offered in picking up album artwork and entire playlists, it makes VideoDuke a product without equal.

2. YTD Video Downloader for Mac

Despite the name indicates that this tool is aimed at downloading YouTube videos, you can also use it to get the audio only. You can choose the MP3 format and download audio that you can then put on your MP3 player, iPad or any smartphone or tablet. It comes with a free version if you only want to download the video and audio files from YouTube and many other websites and if you want to be able to convert files and increase their quality you need to pay a monthly subscription and get the Pro version.

app to download mp3 for mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Can download the entire video, or just the audio
  • Can be used to convert files downloaded elsewhere to MP3s, and/or a variety of other formats as well.

icon cons Cons:

  • Converting downloaded videos to audio can be a bit tedious, as auto-conversion is limited to the pro version
  • Highest quality is gated behind a monthly subscription, as are a few quality of life improvements.

Conclusion: If you’re looking for more than just a YouTube MP3 downloader for Mac, YTD Video Downloader is probably going to be what you’re after. Its ability to download videos and convert them into a variety of file formats makes it the perfect tool to download both your music and your favorite videos to watch offline. The intrusive positioning of reminders to go premium might be too disruptive for someone looking for a free experience, however if they can be looked past this is a perfectly fine piece of software.

3. Media Drug

They always say that music can be the only drug you need and it seems that Media Drug took this seriously and developed a software based on this idea. With a look very similar to the old Winamp that we all used to play our favorite tracks, Media Drug is a 100% free MP3 downloader that is available on all Operating Systems. It can download entire albums with easy and also organize the songs and albums you downloaded.

mac mp3 downloader

icon pros Pros:

  • Helps to provide additional tools to organize your music along with downloading them
  • Free to use.

icon cons Cons:

  • May be out of date for your system.

Conclusion: For those looking to build up a large collection of music, Media Drug might be what you’re after. It’s built-in tools for organizing songs and albums makes it easy to manage your collection.

4. 4K Video Downloader

It’s well known that most of the downloaders capable of grabbing videos from YouTube or any other streaming platforms have started as MP3 downloaders. So you shouldn’t be surprised if a tool named 4K Video Downloader will instantly download high-quality MP3 files. Actually, this Mac MP3 downloader allows you to download multiple files and once and even entire playlists so that you can build a music library accessible offline any time you wish.

downloader mp3 for mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Capable of downloading multiple files simultaneously
  • Very intuitive to use
  • Smart mode allows you to set up preferred download settings, making downloading videos and music as simple as copying a link and pressing a button.

icon cons Cons:

  • Intuitive design results in a lot of streamlining, which may be a little confusing to new users.

Conclusion: Much like YTD Video Downloader, this app is a strong choice for those looking to download videos, as well as MP3s. However, 4K Video Downloader music doesn’t require a paid subscription to access the highest quality, nor does it gate auto-conversion. With its ability to download entire playlists, 4K Video Downloader is a solid choice for both building a large library of music, or easily picking up your favorite video series from YouTube.

5. Wondershare YouTube Music Downloader

This MP3 downloader for Mac combines all the features a user could ever need to get the audio from YouTube videos and save them on their computer or mobile phone to listen offline. To download any type of file you just have to paste the YouTube URL in the specified field and you’re good to go. Choose the MP3 format or any of the video formats and download the final file to a folder of your choosing.


mp3 downloader mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Reasonably fast download speeds
  • Provides recording, file conversion, and file transfer options..

icon cons Cons:

  • Audio-only downloads are restricted to the paid version
  • The majority of the other services have similar limitations, rendering them largely obsolete.

Conclusion: Among the list of apps we’ve presented, Wondershare is probably the most forgettable. It doesn’t restrict its use to a truly prohibitive extent, but neither does it offer enough functionality for free to stand out.

6. Jaksta

Jaksta is a newer service in the field of YouTube MP3 downloaders that is rapidly enjoying a lot of attention. It is perfectly adapted for Mac and iPad and besides YouTube you can use it on hundreds of other websites. Despite its increasing popularity, Jaksta doesn’t offer all the functions in the free version and if you want a complete downloader, you have to pay for the full version. And honestly, even though the product looks good and the marketing people done their job, you can simply use VideoDuke and get the job done.

top mp3 downloader mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Jaksta’s recording focus makes it far more flexible than most of its competitors for downloading content.

icon cons Cons:

  • Limited features in free version
  • Requires you to play the video in order to record it
  • Quality of download isn’t as good as competitors.

Conclusion: Among the products we’ve covered so far, Jaksta stands out for being the most difficult to work with, while providing the lowest quality. Based on its popularity, it may become more approachable and easier to use with exposure, but unless you expect to make use of all of it’s different recording features, it’s unlikely to be worth your time.

7. Abelssoft

Abelssoft may not be the best MP3 downloader for Mac, however, it is definitely worth mentioning on this list for its capabilities. Part of a software suite that also cleans your Mac OS X and manages your passwords, you can get the trial version to see how it goes with downloading YouTube videos. The download speed is good and the range of formats offered is also generous, however, they still have a long way to go.

best software to download mp3 on mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Allows you to search YouTube directly in the app, and preview the videos before downloading
  • Easy to download just the audio, for both audio and video.

icon cons Cons:

  • Requires registration
  • Default language is set to German, and cannot be changed until registration is complete.

Conclusion: Abelssoft’s YouTube Music Downloader is a perfectly passable app for Mac MP3 songs download, but lacks anything that makes it stand out from its competition. If you’re looking to explore all of your options it’s worth picking up, but the registration in a foreign language is enough of a hurdle that you’re probably better off skipping it.

8. iMusic

When you first land on the iMusic website you understand that these guys are very serious about the product they deliver. This MP3 downloader for Mac offers you the possibility to download and manage the music you get, transfer tracks between iPad, iPhone, iPod or Android Phones to the PC or Mac computer. Besides that, it works with more than 3000 websites for fast and high-quality music download. You can opt to download files with a bitrate between 129k and 320k in MP3 or M4A.

tool to download mp3 mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Can transfer your music between devices
  • Serves as a music player as well, and isn’t limited to music it downloads
  • Works for a lot more than just downloading from YouTube.

icon cons Cons:

  • 10 track download limit on the free version.

Conclusion: If you’re looking for free MP3 music downloads for Mac, iMusic isn’t likely to meet your needs. Its ability to play music, as well as download it, is useful, though far from unique, and the limited amount of downloads for a free user means there are better alternatives out there.

9. Grappler

Next in our list, Grappler. The approach they used to promote their product isn’t quite consistent. Even though the user interface is professionally done and the downloader look great and it offers iTunes integration, they used to go with ‘If it plays, it probably saves’ as the opening line on their website. Nobody wants uncertainty when downloading their favorite songs from YouTube. We all want a software that we know will work and will deliver the best possible results.

downloader youtube mp3 mac

icon pros Pros:

  • Allows you to search for artists on YouTube, and download several of their songs simultaneously.

icon cons Cons:

  • 10 download limit for free users
  • Unreliable performance.

Conclusion: Despite its pretty interface, Grappler doesn’t have a lot going for it. In testing it, we encountered several bugs that rendered it unusable, and after looking into the reviews, we weren’t alone in this. Should those bugs not appear for you, it may prove to be just what you’re looking for.

10. iTube Studio

When looking for a YouTube MP3 downloader, Mac users are almost spoiled by the wide offering of choices. With the wide variety of apps to choose from, it’s inevitable that some programs will begin to look alike. iTube Studio feels almost identical to Wondershare YouTube Music Downloader. It offers all the same features, with many of the same restrictions for free users.

iTube Studio

icon pros Pros:

  • Provides recording, file conversion, and file transfer options
  • Unlike Wondershare, users can download just audio without paying for premium.

icon cons Cons:

  • Limits downloads for free users to just 2 videos
  • Doesn’t bring much new to the table.

Conclusion: iTube Studio is a perfectly acceptable alternative to Wondershare, worth a look at if you’re taking in all your options, but only if you’ve struggled to get Wondershare to work, or haven’t looked at it yet. If you’ve seen Wondershare, you’ve seen iTube Studio, and vice versa.

11. Apowersoft Video Downloader

The newest addition to the list, Apowersoft Video Downloader is one of the more streamlined among the options presented. It doesn’t offer nearly as many features as some of its competitors, which helps users focus on what they’re looking for.

Apowersoft Video Downloader

icon pros Pros:

  • Has a Detector feature which is unique among any other app listed here
  • Slightly more generous with it’s free downloads than some other apps on this list.

icon cons Cons:

  • Limited to only 2 downloads without registration.

Conclusion: If you’re looking to pick up a few songs and don’t mind the inconvenience of registration, it’s worth a look, but if you’re willing to pay for a product, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

What is an MP3 Downloader?

If you just scrolled through the article and you didn’t quite understand what all the talk was about, this section will clear things for you. All the software solutions listed above are MP3 downloaders. These software tools are specifically built to grab audio files from various sources online. Media streaming platforms like Youtube, Vimeo or Vevo are among the most popular sources for downloading MP3 files.

An MP3 downloader for Mac can get audio files in various popular formats that are supported by playback devices. Some of the most used audio formats are:

  • • MP3;
  • • WAV;
  • • M4A;
  • • WMA;
  • • OGG Vorbis;
  • • MPEG-4 SLS;
  • • AAC;
  • • FLAC.

Take a look at the best resources for finding new music

Although YouTube is one of the most popular resources where you can find all new music by browsing through official musicians channels, there are some other great music hosting platforms that you should consider visiting. Here is our list of the best 4 resources for getting new soundtracks:

Last.fm - a resource that offers tons of good music. All you need to do to start enjoying it is to download Last.fm, create an account and connect it to your music player. Once you’ve done it, you will be able to search for the music tracks and get recommendations based on the songs you are listening to. This platform is a great way to enrich your music library and discover something new.

BandCamp - its a perfect platform for both music artists and listeners. While the first ones can place and sell their tracks, the second ones can enjoy all the new music. By using BandCamp you will be able to browse through top fresh songs and find highly recommended new artists. There are also filters and tags for finding music according to its genre.

8Tracks - a unique app that allows creating your own music playlist and enjoying listening to the music collections of other users. You will find a lot of music artists, DJs and regular music fans while using this app. What is the most convenient about this app is that all playlists are sorted according to the occasion. Just imagine how great it is to find a whole playlist for your yoga class, party with friends, training in the gym or romantic night.

SoundCloud - this app has some quite useful features that you might like to try. Like all other platforms mentioned above, SoundCloud allows to search for new music and artists. But what is really interesting about it is that it has world map option that allows you to find the musicians that are popular in your country or city. There is also an integration of this app to Apple Music which is very convenient.

15. FAQs

When choosing a music downloader for Mac, you want a product which offers you a clean, simple experience finding and downloading files, provides free music download for Mac, but has enough additional features built in that it will continue to meet your needs as your library expands.
Downloading an mp3 file to your Mac from YouTube is very easy with music downloaders for Macs we’ve listed here. Among them, VideoDuke and 4K Video Downloader probably provide the easiest experiences.
Absolutely! A few of the products on this list can download an entire YouTube playlist, however, the standout Mac MP3 downloader among them has to be VideoDuke.
Yes! Several of the apps listed in this article provide services to convert YouTube videos to .mp3 files.
While it's never as simple as just pressing a button that says “download mp3”, Mac apps have gotten it as close as can be. Most of the apps on this list aren’t limited to YouTube, and you can use them on any site, with the same methods you would to download an MP3 off of YouTube with them to download MP3s from elsewhere.

We’ve reached the end of this article and we hope that you used all the information shared about audio formats and found the best MP3 downloader for Mac. Now all you need to do is create or identify playlists to download them and build a solid music library that you can listen without needing an Internet connection.

VideoDuke

Requirements: OS X 10.12+ , 55.99MB free space
Version 2.15.2.773 (30 Apr, 2024) Release notes
Category: Video Downloaders for Mac