How to extract the audio from a video (MP4 or MOV to MP3)
Updated 2026-10-24
Sometimes the video is just packaging: a lecture, a meeting, an interview, a song someone filmed. Pulling the audio out as an MP3 gives you a file that's a fraction of the size and plays on any phone, car stereo or music app.
Choosing the right quality
MP3 quality is set by bitrate. 128 kbps is plenty for speech — lectures, meetings, podcasts. 192 kbps is a good default for music. 320 kbps is the highest MP3 quality and makes sense when you care about every detail of a song.
On Localvert the quality presets map to these: Smaller file is 128 kbps, Balanced is 192 kbps and Best quality is 320 kbps.
When to use WAV instead
If you're going to edit the audio — cut it, mix it, clean up noise — WAV is the better choice. It's uncompressed, so editing software doesn't add another round of compression on top. Convert to MP3 only at the very end, when you're ready to share.
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Steps
Open the MP4 to MP3 (or MOV to MP3) converter, drop in your video, choose a quality and download the MP3. The first time, your browser downloads the conversion engine once; after that it starts straight away.
If you see a message saying the file has no sound, the video really doesn't contain an audio track — this is common with screen recordings made with the microphone off.
Why it matters where you do this
Recordings of meetings, interviews, classes and calls often contain private conversations. Most online converters upload the whole video to their servers to process it. Localvert runs the conversion in your browser instead, so the recording never leaves your computer.