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How To Convert MP4 to MP3: A Step-by-Step Guide

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MP4 and MP3 are two of the most popular file formats in the world of technology.

However, each of them serves a different purpose. While MP4 is the format of video, MP3 is meant for audio content.

If you’re creating a multimedia website, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or any other kind of audio-visual content, you’ll have to deal with both of them from time to time.

And sometimes, you may also have to convert them from one format to another.

If you don’t know how to do that, it may be a little problematic.

But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to convert MP4 to MP3.

There are two methods for it, and we shall explore both. Let’s begin!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we need to convert an MP4 to Mp3?

There may be many reasons behind it. For instance:

1) You may be wanting to publish your content as a podcast in addition to a vide, 2) The visual part may not be of much value, or 3) It may be a video you’ve downloaded from YouTube and now want to play in the background on your smartphone.

What are some benefits of converting an MP4 video to MP3?

There are many benefits, but the key ones among them are reduced file size, easy sharability, and access to new opportunities like publishing them as podcasts, licensing them, etc.

MP3 is the most popular and commonly used audio format — if it wasn’t feature-rich, that would not have been the case.

Can we retain audio quality even after converting a file from MP4?

Absolutely. You may even improve the audio quality during the conversion process by choosing the bitrate and other parameters as per your preferences.

After conversion, if you want to further improve the sound quality then you can use an audio editing program to do that!

What you’ll need to convert MP4 to MP3

This depends upon the method that you choose to convert.

If you use the cloud method, you need:

  • A PC, a smartphone, or a tablet device
  • A good internet connection to upload and download the file after conversion.

But if you’re going to use the offline method, then you need a video converter program (Movavi) installed on your computer to do this.

And obviously, you need a computer too in that case — not a smartphone or a tablet.

How to convert MP4 to MP3: Cloud conversion method

This method converts your MP4 to MP3 in the cloud and doesn’t require the download of any software.

It can be most useful in situations when you need to convert small MP4 files to MP3.

Step 1. Visit the CloudConverter website

Fire your browser to CloudConvert’s MP4 to Mp3 conversion page.

For easy access, you can also bookmark this page.

Step 2. Upload your MP4 file

Click on the Select File button to upload your MP4 file for conversion.

CloudConvert allows you to add your file from 5 different sources:

  • From your device/computer
  • From Google Drive
  • OneDrive
  • URL (any URL as long as it points directly to an MP4 file)
  • Dropbox
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These options can be accessed by clicking the small dropdown icon included with the ‘Select File’ button.

You can choose any of these options depending on where your MP4 file is stored/hosted.

If you want to upload from your computer, you can simply click on the ‘Select File’  button instead of the dropdown icon.

A new dialogue box will open, and you can browse your files in it to select and upload your MP4 file.

You can also upload multiple files if you want to.

The button to add more files will appear once you have added at least one file to the video converter.

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Step 3. Specify the audio quality

One of the great things about CloudConvert is that it allows you to specify the quality of your MP3 file before converting it.

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Once your file has been uploaded, you can tweak the settings below the Select File button to specify the bitrate, audio quality, and even some advanced things like Qscale, Channels, and Sample Rate.

So whether you’re an average person looking for a simple MP3 file or an acoustics enthusiast… you can select the kind of audio features you want in your file after conversion.

Step 4. Convert!

Finally, click on the Convert button to start the conversion process.

Once the file has been converted, you can download it with the click of a button. Simple!

Bonus Tip: If you want to convert a YouTube video (any video, even blocked YouTube content) to MP3 audio, that can also be done without having to download the video first as an MP4 file.

You can use a YouTube to MP3 converter for that!

How to convert MP4 to MP3: Offline conversion method

This method is best suited for large MP4 files that can’t be uploaded easily for conversion.

It requires downloading a program to your PC first.

Step 1. Download and Install the Movavi converter

Go to the website of Movavi video converter and download their software on your PC.

It’s available for both Windows and Mac, so make sure that you download the correct version.

Step 2. Add your MP4 file to the converter

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Once you’ve installed the Movavi converter, launch it and add your MP4 files to it.

You can either drag and drop your files or you can add them by clicking the ‘Add Media’ button.

Step 3. Select the output format

After adding your files to the converter you need to select the output format as MP3.

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Click on the Audio tab showing below the files that you have added.

Once the tab has opened, select MP3. You can also define any presets (i.e. bitrate) if you want to, otherwise, just select MP3 Original Bitrate option.

Step 4. Define the saving location

Click on the ‘Save To’ button to define the location where you want to save your file.

Step 5. Convert!

Finally, hit the Convert button and wait while your video converts to MP3.

Once it’s converted, you can find your MP3 file in the folder that you specified in the previous step.

Similar Tutorials To Check Out

  • Convert DVD to MP4: This tutorial explains how can you convert a DVD to MP4. Because when it comes to videos, MP4 is a much better alternative than the DVD format.
  • How to Use Screen Recording Software: This tutorial can come in handy when you want to make a video of what you’re doing on your computer but don’t know how to use screen recording software.
  • How to Take A Screenshot on Windows: This last tutorial explains how to take screenshots on a Windows computer because sometimes pictures can explain something better than a video.

Wrapping up

We hope we could explain the full procedure of converting an MP4 file to an MP3 file in this tutorial.

Knowing these methods can be crucial not only for converting your offline MP4 files but also for the content downloaded from Video search engines.

You can use either of the above-explained methods and convert your MP4 videos to MP3 audio format without any loss of quality.

If you still have any questions on this subject, feel free to share them in the comments.

We’ll try our best to answer them.

And if you liked the methods, share this article on your social media profiles too so others can also convert their MP4 files to MP3.

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