There must have been occasions when you have been browsing YouTube and stumbled across a video you have not been able to access anywhere else. It could be a live performance of your favourite band, footage of an important event or just something else you’d like to be able to keep for posterity. There are various browser plugins that can be used to download videos from YouTube, but this is a dedicated app that can be used to not only download but also convert files between formats.

Although YouTube is home to millions of video files, there are plenty of files that are really just audio files that are accompanied by an image. These are usually music files, and they are prime candidates for downloading as MP3 files so they can be transferred to your smartphone or other players.

Free YouTube MP3 Converter is easy to use. Simply copy and paste the link of the YouTube video you'd like converted to MP3 and watch the conversion process. There are a number of readymade templates that can be used to convert videos into formats that are most suited to various devices. Options are self-explanatory and should you find that you use the program to download large videos while you continue to use your computer for other tasks, you can place a limit on bandwidth usage to prevent it from slowing down your internet connection too much.

A Premium version is available for $9 after installation, with a wider selection of conversion options and file formats. You are also able to copy links to entire playlists and the smart programme will convert all the videos on that playlist into separate MP3 files. Premium also includes a commercial licence.

Note that during installation, the program will ask if you agree to sending anonymized usage information, but this setting is optional so make sure to untick the relevant box and select the Custom installation option to avoid anything you are not happy with.