I started digitizing all my music back in 2001, and any tunes I came across and liked have been mine ever since. However, at some point I got too comfortable with always having an Internet connection, and I'd simply browse to YouTube whenever I wanted to listen to something. That habit was fine until one afternoon when I pulled up the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night full soundtrack and that video had ads every 10 minutes, which killed the dark & mysterious mood dead as a skeleton. And then months later, that video was nowhere to be found.

That was my wake-up call. Don't let Spotify or iTunes or whatever control your music and decide what you may listen to — build a collection that is truly your own.

tools.txt

Recommended Tools

  • VLC Media Player — Free, open-source, available on all platforms. Download from your platform's app store or directly from videolan.org.
  • Material Notes (Android) — A simple, distraction-free text editor. No ads, no account required.
  • squid-dl — A project on our own repository. Installation instructions provided.

A Simple Exercise

Please let me lead you through a simple exercise. If I lose you at any point, that's alright — I'll come back for you in another article.

  1. Find a YouTube video you enjoy listening to — a song, no longer than an hour. Copy that video's link from the address bar in your browser.
  2. Open a text editor or notepad program of your choice. If your notepad has ads, or requires a user account just to use it, I will remember you in a future article.
  3. Paste that video link in the notepad and label it so you know what video that link goes to — or went to, if that video ever gets taken down.
  4. Go to a search engine and search youtube mp3. You are not looking for a particular result — there are many sites that fit the criteria. Some simply don't work; others might try to get you to create an account or purchase a subscription. Try to, because you won't agree to any of that. Find the site that lets you paste your video link and press "convert" or "download" without providing anything in return.

Hopefully by now you realize what you've just learned to do, and the power you now have. That MP3 file will be in your possession for as long as you can keep it somewhere you can find it — an external hard drive, an SD card, or a spare phone. The music is yours. Keep it that way.