mp3_get: Download MP3 from URL

Description

This function downloads YouTube videos or Soundcloud or any other platform supported by the youtube-dl library, and converts them into high quality MP3 files. The URL can be for a single video or a whole playlist. It also returns metadata into an (invisible) list.

Usage

mp3_get(
  id,
  mp3 = TRUE,
  repo = "yt-dlp",
  params = "--no-check-certificate",
  start_time = 0,
  end_time = NA,
  overwrite = TRUE,
  open = FALSE,
  delete = open,
  info = TRUE,
  title = NULL,
  cover = FALSE,
  metadata = FALSE,
  quiet = FALSE
)

Value

(Invisible) list with id's meta-data.

Arguments

id: Character. YouTube URL or ID to search for.
mp3: Boolean. Add mp3 optimal parameters?
repo: Character. Chose repository you installed youtube-dl from. Any of: "youtube-dl" (latest stable version), "yt-dlp" (latest dev version).
params: Character. Additional parameters.
start_time, end_time: Numeric. Start and end time to trim the audio output in seconds.
overwrite: Boolean. Overwrite original file?
open, delete: Boolean. After everything's done, should the file be opened? Should it be deleted?
info: Boolean. Import and return metadata?
title: Character. Title of the track to search for cover, metadata, and name the file.
cover: Boolean. Google Search its squared cover? Uses title input when provided.
metadata: Boolean. Use iTunes Search API (free) to extract "track" data and high-res cover art. Falls back to "spotifyr" if no results are found (requires credentials and, since 2026-03-09, Spotify Premium linked to the client id). Uses title input when provided.
quiet: Boolean. Keep quiet? If not, informative messages will be shown.

youtube-dl

More info from the original developers and its code: youtube-dl's Github

Examples

Run this code

# You must have "youtube-dl" installed in your OS:
if (FALSE) {
# Download video from YouTube and convert to MP3
mp3_get("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrlKcCdVw9Q")
# OR simply
mp3_get("lrlKcCdVw9Q")
# For dev version, use:
mp3_get("m3RX4LJh0iI", repo = "yt-dlp")
}