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I would like to convert mp4 (video included) to mp3 (without video). what is the best way of doing this apart from using audacity (or similar software) and performing manual conversion (recording as the audio plays)

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9 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I've used Convert MP4 to MP3. As for me - it's good.

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up vote 6 down vote

Try changing the extension from .mp4 to .m4a. Then open it in iTunes and convert it to an mp3.

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Worked brilliantly. I love the fact that it uses a well-known company's software. Thanks! – Senseful Mar 18 '11 at 20:05
up vote 3 down vote

MediaCoder should do it. Load the video, disable video, choose audio encoder, done.

Or download the audio version of MediaCoder, AudioCoder.

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up vote 2 down vote

All video-processing roads lead to Avidemux.

Drag MP4 into window. If the original audio track in the MP4 file was MP3, you can go directly to ‘Audio->Save’ and get the original, untouched audio with no quality loss.

If it's not MP3 (probably AAC would be more likely), change the ‘Audio’ drop-down from ‘Copy’ to ‘MP3 (lame)’, hit ‘Configure’ to set the bitrate (you probably also want to enable Joint Stereo), and then ‘Audio->Save’.

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up vote 1 down vote

The quickest way (If you have good internet) is just to use an online service.

For example Media-Convert or Zamzar

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up vote 1 down vote

All of the above are good choices.

You may also want to investigate MeGUI - it's complex and the learning curve is not the most accessible, but it's powerful and you may find it useful again at some point in the future.

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up vote 0 down vote

Quicktime Pro is able to do it.

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is quicktime available for free on a mac? – quest49 Oct 1 '10 at 19:27
Before Snow Leopard, there were two versions of Quicktime: one free and shipped with the system, the other one being a paid upgrade. This latter is Quicktime Pro. Since Snow Leopard, a third version exists, named Quicktime X, which is free and shipped with the system. I know for sure that Quicktime Pro is able to convert from mp4 video to mp3 audio, I know that Quicktime X is not. I am not sure about Quicktime. – mouviciel Oct 2 '10 at 9:09
up vote 0 down vote

Command-line-wise, there's always ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 4 output.mp3

-q:a determines the audio quality of the MP3; its meaning differs between encoders, but in this case a lower number gives better quality, but a larger file. See here for a guide to encoding MP3s with ffmpeg. Since the MP3 format cannot contain any video, there is no need to specify any video-stripping option - ffmpeg does it automatically.

Alternatively, to simply extract the audio into an audio MP4 (M4A):

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c copy output.m4a

Since the MP4 format (and M4A is simply a renamed MP4) can contain video, the -vn option is necessary to strip the video stream. -c copy tells ffmpeg to copy the streams without any re-encoding.

You can get ffmpeg from the Downloads page on their website.

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protected by Ivo Flipse♦ Jan 12 '11 at 13:05

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