How to Legally Download YouTube Videos Music in The Right Way

Posted by Bertha Miller to YouTube Download | Last Updated on Dec.3, 2018

Basically, it has no definite answer when you ask on Q&A forums about "is it legal or illegal to save YouTube music and videos for offline playing?". If your intention, choice and method have no problem, then it's legal to download YouTube video and music. Providing you have a vicious intent, choose an improper YouTube content or adopt a wrong way, you know the answer: it's illegal to download YouTube videos and music. Well, you might be confused about the mentioned intention, choice and method. What are the criteria about these factors? Calm down, read on.

Right Way Makes YouTube Download Legal & 100% FREE

Criteria to Judge if it is Legal to Download YouTube Videos Music

Prior to explaining these factors, you'd better have a review on General Use of the Service and Your Use of Content from YouTube Terms of Service first to have a basic understanding about YouTube requirements. Then, go on.

1. Your Intention. According to item 5B from YouTube Terms of Service, you may access YouTube content for your information and personal legal use. You shall not copy, reproduce, pirate, distribute, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any content for any other commercial or illegal purposes without getting the consent of YouTube, creators or licensor. Otherwise, it's illegal to download YouTube video music.

2. Your Choice. Can anything on YouTube be legally downloaded? Not really. You need to make a choice among YouTube contents. You're allowed to legally download YouTube music and videos with a "Download" icon or similar link displayed by YouTube. Beyond that, it's illegal to download YouTube video and music (esp copyright protected content) if you don't get the license or permission from YouTube or the creator.

3. Your Way. YouTube has cooperation relationship with some third-party websites and software like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. It's legal for you to download YouTube music and videos with the software or authorized ways YouTube designate. As for other technologies or ways, YouTube doesn't permit you to use them to access content, like using a YouTube video recorder to record non-downloadable YouTube video or copyright protected videos, etc. So if you violate this YouTube term, it's illegal for you to download YouTube music and videos.

Note: if you are a juvenile (under 18 years of age), you shall not watch the age-restricted videos on YouTube, let alone legally download them from YouTube.

YouTube Red is a Practical Way to Legally Download YouTube?

Right Way to Legally Download YouTube Videos Music for 100% FREE

Let's come straight to the point. The recommended truly right way is MacX YouTube Downloader, a 100% FREE YouTube downloader to Legally download videos music movies from YouTube. Plus, unlike YouTube Red, it can be used anywhere, no geographic restrictions.

Free download videos, music, movies from YouTube in 720p, 1080p, 4K 2160p or in MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV, HEVC, WebM, etc. any format in batch.
Correctly analyze URL and download YouTube without YouTube warnings or YouTube errors.
Save video audio from Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, Metacafe, LiveLeak, etc. 300+ sites if the video resource on YouTube is non-downloadable.
Add the downloaded MP4 videos to iTunes Library for transferring to iPhone, iPad and more for offline playback on the road, camping trip or at the gym.

[Full Guide] How to Legally Download YouTube Videos Music

At the very begining, you need to get this free yet legal YouTube downloader on your computer based on your operating system.

Free download legal YouTube video downloader on macOS.
Free download legal YouTube video downloader on Windows (10/8/7).

Step 1: Launch this legal yet free YouTube downloader. Click +URL button to trigger the video downloading feature. Go to youtube.com and find the licensed YouTube video you want. Copy and paste the YouTube video URL into the address bar, then click Analyze button, after which the program will automatically fetch the YouTube video info. Note: Batch downloading is supported, which means you can get as many YouTube videos as you can.

Step 2: Choose the YouTube video resolution, size, codec, format at your willing. For a high-quality playback of YouTube video on iPhone 8/7/6s/6/SE/5s, we highly recommend you to choose the output MP4 in HD 1080p.

Step 3: Click Browse to choose a target folder for output YouTube video storage and tap Download button to begin legally downloading YouTube videos or music. The processing speed is decided by this tool's performance, as well as your hardware configuration and computer operating environment (simultaneously do other tasks on the background or not).

Tip 1: Tick "Auto add MP4s to iTunes" and this program will automatically add legal YouTube downloads to iTunes if the format is .mp4. Afterwards, you can eventually transfer YouTube MP4 videos from iTunes to iPhone iPad iPod for offline watching anywhere anytime with nary a limit.

Tip 2: It's advisable to upgrade the legal freeware to its pro version - MacX Video Converter Pro, which can not only free download authorized YouTube videos, 3D movies, VR videos, 4K video, etc from YouTube and 300+ other sites, but also convert any video to MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, and more for smooth playback on iPhone (8/Plus), iPad, Android, Windows, Mac, Apple TV, etc.

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For any questions with MacX YouTube Downloader, please feel free to contact our support team.