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Google Looking To Shut Down YouTube-To-MP3 Conversion Sites

Youtube-convertYouTube is easily a top destination for music consumption, and not just in the viewing of music videos, but for general streaming of music as well. Recognizing this, several websites have been created and utilized by large numbers of people that allow for the conversion of audio from YouTube videos into downloadable mp3s, making it easy for people to “own” the tracks they’ve streamed – and Google, owner of YouTube, is not happy about this.


According to a report over at TorrentFreak, sites like YouTube-Mp3.org and Music-clips.net have been receiving letters indicating that their services allow users to download material from YouTube, which directly violates the company's terms of service. The sites even allow users to input the YouTube link directly and receive a download with the video's audio. While YouTube-Mp3.org does not use YouTube's API, they remain in Google’s crosshairs, having been sent a letter on June 8 threatening to be sued if they did not shut down in seven days (Google’s own DoubleClick service reports that the site receives 1.3 million hits per day).

YouTube-MP3’s owner, named only as “Philip”, is contesting the action and sent a long response to Associate Product Counsel at YouTube, Harris Cohen, looking to negotiate. YouTube and Google, however, do not seem to be interested. In fact, Google has blocked all of YouTube-MP3′s servers from accessing YouTube, essentially stripping the site of its primary service.

While there are certainly several other sites that provide a suitable alternative to YouTube-Mp3.org or Music-clips.net, Google looks to be eliminating the issue by starting out with the biggest ones first, saying they have a mandate from their users to protect how the content they upload to YouTube is shared and disseminated.

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Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud

admin on 06/20/2012 in Streaming | Permalink | Comments (14)
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14 Comments

  5. Shutting these services down is like plucking grey hairs – one goes away, two more come in it’s place…

  6. And yet Google News and Google Books were doing essentially the same thing and Google insisted that was Fair Use. It’s all whose ox is being gored, isn’t it ;).

  7. Google ignored the protests of Philip and now they probably might not want to listen to millions of people who benefit from this site. Not only that, but there’s clearly a compromise here, neither of which side is refusing to cooperate, and now a legal battle has emerged from the mess. They’re forgetting that we’re the ones who get affected by this the most, and our music is more important in our daily lives than they think.

  8. They are just going to start using java downloaders like http://www.tubedown.net not quite as convenient but it definitely gets the job done. Since it uses Java the site cant be held liable for anything since nothing is stored on the server.

  9. If Google want to stop MP3 converters they should remove them from being able to be downloadable from Google Chrome

  11. It would be really helpful Hypebot.com if the date of this article was indicated; information changes with time.

  13. we just want our music…is that asking too much?simple easy and does not mess up computers like other services that need to be downloaded.come on google…give the people theyre muzik. Music make the world go round

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