When you are trying to find a service to save your video as audio for offline listening, you probably have seen many blogs recommending Listentoyoutube.com as a nice tool. But the minute you entered that link to visit the page, it turned out that this online tool is out of business.
The website throws an HTTP ERROR 502 at you, saying the server is unable to handle the request.
Why did the team behind this tool pull the plug? Is it safe to visit a webpage with a similar domain name? Please read on to find out more.
The History of Listentoyoutube.com
When the "Listen to Youtube" team created the site, the goal was to help users to convert online videos to MP3 for offline listening, without signing up or paying anything. With a simple paste of the URL, the site will rip the music off the video on its server, and generate a downloadable link for the user.
The web-based service itself is controversial from the very beginning. For one thing, it is a breach of YouTube's TOS (terms of service) to download content without permission from YouTube; for another, it is not a criminal act to save certain content for which the copyright laws don't apply – say, content in the public domain, from creative commons and so on, for fair use.
It is probably this controversy that leads the site to its success and also its demise. Listentoyoutube.com has been around for nearly a decade, from 2007 to 2018. Its popularity is evident through the large chunk of incoming traffic and blog recommendations. The high demand even leads to server breaches, as noted on their homepage.
During its peak times, it is estimated to harvest 7 million daily visits worldwide, according to Afrefs, a digital marketing analysis site. Up till now, there are still more than 2600 websites recommending the service from Listentoyoutube.com.
Features and Services
Extracting audio from YouTube videos is the main service offered by Listentoyoutube.com. It will rip the audio from the server side, so that users don't need to save the video before audio extraction. It is time-saving and handy when there is a bad internet connection, or when users simply don't need the video.
Extracting MP3 from Online Video
Once an URL is entered, this online tool will display information such as title, file size, estimated processing time.
Before saving the video, this online tool also provides you with a previewing feature. You can playback the audio before extracting it to the local drive.
In the final step, the website will generate a download link for you to click. Just like many other online services, clicking the link will redirect the user to other webpages to take advange of the traffic, meanwhile, it will initiate the downloading process as well. Many users put up with it by simply closing the unrelated webpages.
Quick Load: An Easy Way to Listen to the Audio
Besides pasting the URL, this online service also introduced a Quick Load feature early in 2008. Basically, you just type "listento" at the beginning of a YouTube video URL (in the address bar of a browser) and hit Enter. It will take you to the site, and automatically paste the URL properly into the box.
This Quick Load feature is properly one reason for the popularity of this online site. Instead of requiring users to remember lenghty domain name, it's much easier to type the word right before the URL of a video that they are watching.
Supported Format and Audio Quality Options
At that time when Flash video still has its place, Listentoyoutube.com supports ripping FLV to MP3 directly on its server. Users don't need to go through a dual process to download and extract the audio.
For audio quality, the standard-quality option will produce 64kbps mono MP3, and sampled at 22.05kHz; while the high-quality option will usually generate 128kbps stereo AAC sampled at 44.1kHz.
The Reception of the Service
From a macro perspective, Listentoyoutube.com is most popular in the US, Spain, Vietnam and United Kingdom (according to statistics from Similarweb.com). Users from these countries account for more than 76% of the total traffic, with the US taking up around 38.2%.
Once Listentoyoutube.com was out of business, many users flocked to its Facebook page and other video forums, trying to find solutions or alternatives to bringing their workflow back to normal again.
Based on their comments and discussions, some users used to relying on the site's service to save online seminars, interviews, and lectures for research and personal use. Many found it convenient to save audio only when the visual content is less of a matter, or when the videos are too large to download under bad network conditions.
Still, it is reasonable to speculate that, there is a bevy of users taking advantage of the site's service to save music videos and other copyrighted content.
What Then Happened to Listentoyoutube.com
Unlike websites that go on a slow decline, listentoyoutube was shut down abruptly. Its traffic dropped from about 2 million to zero during February, 2018.
Before the site's nixing, its homepage featured a large banner, claiming that they are moving to vidtomp3.com, a website registered in 2007 in Reykjavik, Iceland. The latter is still in operation these days, but the anti-virus utility flags it and alerts you when you enter that website address.
Except for that banner urging users to make do with another service, the webmasters behind Listentoyoube.com didn't disclose any reason for the site's demise. Still, a reasonable guess is that it is related to the breach of the Terms of Service of YouTube and DMCA.
YouTube's Terms of Service Regarding Downloading
When it comes to the act of downloading content from YouTube, it is not a gray area, in fact. According to YouTube's TOS, you are not allowed to download the content unless you have written permission from YouTube and the rights holders (see screenshots of the TOS below or read a detailed explanation here).
Upon violation, you may face a lawsuit from YouTube, or get your account banned. Though in reality, YouTube hasn't sued any individual person so far. YouTube indeed launched a law suit against a large downloading service, YouTube-MP3.org, and the former withdrew its claims several years ago. The exception is, you can download your own content from YouTube, according to YouTube support. It will be either a 720p or 360p video, without preapproved audio tracks in it.
In terms of copyright laws, however, it is not always an infringement to download content online. For instance, you can save content that falls in the public domain, or content made as creative commons by the copyright holder. Still, even if it's not a criminal act, it violates YouTube's terms of service.
About DMCA Complaint
Passed in 1998 by the US Congreess, DMCA (US Digital Millenuim Copyrigh Act) is an amendment to copyright laws, with a specific focus on Internet copyright protection and its relationship with copyright laws.
In terms of search results, any stake holder can file a DMCA complaint with regard to content displayed by search engines, such as Google. Once verified, the search engine will remove the result from the search page. For instance, when searching the query "listentoyoutube", there is a DMCA complaint displayed at the bottom of the search page.
The Game of Whack-a-mole
Possibly due to its violation of YouTube's TOS and DMCA regulations, Listentoyoutube.com is no longer in operation. Before its demise, although the site bluntly claimed its stands, saying that the website's service is offered to "convert non-copyrighted content only" and that they "do not condone any type of piracy", it does not impose any restrictions on the users' side, nor has it introduced any sort of algorithm to detect or discriminate copy-righted works.
Still, it is like a game of Whack-a-mole. One site down, numerous websites spring up, with similar features and even familiar domain names. There are ongoing debates over the practice of downloading online content for personal fair use, in similar ways that people argue over the legitimateness of recording tapes before the digital time.
