A great deal of what gets posted to Facebook as video does not need to be watched. Talks, interviews, sermons, panel discussions, lectures and community meetings are recorded with a camera pointed at somebody speaking, and the picture adds nothing you would miss with the phone in your pocket.
This is particularly true of the material Facebook is unusually good at hosting. Local organisations, religious congregations, community groups and small institutions stream their events there because it is where their audience already is, and those recordings frequently run to an hour or more.
An hour of video is a few hundred megabytes and demands your eyes. The same hour as audio is a fraction of that and can be listened to while driving, cooking or walking, which for this kind of material is how most people would rather take it in.
Turning a Facebook video into audio
-
1
Copy the Facebook video address
Take the facebook.com address for the video from your browser, or use the three dots on the post and copy the link.
-
2
Present the video link above
Paste it into the field at the top of this page, which begins reading it at once.
-
3
Take the audio option
Where a separate audio track exists it is listed beneath the video versions, with a file size a fraction of theirs.
-
4
Listen wherever suits
Tap the row when it turns blue. Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone, ready for any music or podcast app.
When audio is the better choice
The decision comes down to whether the picture is carrying information. For a great deal of Facebook video, it is not.
| Kind of video | Is the picture needed? | Better as |
|---|---|---|
| Talk, sermon, lecture | Rarely | Audio |
| Interview or panel | Rarely | Audio |
| Music performance | Sometimes | Either |
| Demonstration or tutorial | Yes | Video |
| Family or personal footage | Yes | Video |
The size difference is substantial. An hour of video at a watchable quality runs to several hundred megabytes; the same hour as audio is typically under sixty. On a metered connection or a full phone that is the whole argument.
Why people take the audio only
Listening while doing something else is the main one. A recorded talk works perfectly well through car speakers or headphones, and video actively gets in the way of that.
Storage and data are the second. Audio is a small fraction of the size, which matters on an older phone or a limited plan, and matters more when you are keeping a series of recordings rather than one.
And audio plays in better software for the purpose. A podcast app remembers where you stopped, plays at higher speed and queues things up, none of which a video player does well.
Facebook audio extraction questions
Will every Facebook video offer audio?
Only where a separate audio track is exposed. It is not available for every video, and the list will show you.
What quality will the audio be on Facebook?
Whatever was in the video. Facebook compresses audio on upload, so expect it to be adequate for speech rather than good for music.
Can I convert a live broadcast on Facebook?
Only once it has finished and been left up as a recording.
Is this any good for music videos?
Workable, but the audio has been compressed twice over. For music a proper source is always better.
How much smaller is the file?
Substantially. An hour of video runs to several hundred megabytes and the same hour of audio is usually under sixty.
Can I extract audio from a private post?
No. If the video itself is not public, neither is its sound.
Where does the MP3 save on Facebook?
Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone, from which most audio apps can import it.
Will the poster know?
No. Nothing is reported and no account is involved here.
Can I do a whole page of videos?
No. Each video needs its own address.
Is extracting audio acceptable on Facebook?
For a talk or a sermon you want to listen to again, entirely ordinary, and organisations posting those generally want them heard. Lifting the soundtrack from somebody's production and using it elsewhere is a different question.