Y-Download saves YouTube to M4A without converting anything. YouTube stores the sound of nearly every video as an AAC stream inside an MP4 container, and the M4A option simply extracts that stream and hands it to you as a file. Nothing is decoded or re-encoded, so the audio is bit-for-bit what YouTube streams, the download finishes faster than any conversion could, and the file is the smallest one you can get. Paste a video, Short or YouTube Music link, choose M4A, and you are done in a few seconds.
M4A is the audio format of the Apple ecosystem. The iTunes Store has sold music as AAC in M4A files since 2003 and Apple Music streams AAC today, so the Music app on iPhone, iPad and Mac, plus GarageBand, iMovie, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime, open it natively, and Android, Windows 10 and 11, Chromebooks, VLC and most car systems play it too. If you want to add a track to your library in the Music app or drop it onto a timeline on a Mac, M4A fits without a single conversion step.
Compared with MP3 at the same bitrate, AAC is the more efficient codec, which is part of why YouTube uses it. A 128 kbps M4A from YouTube is widely regarded as a match for an MP3 at 160–192 kbps, yet it weighs only about 1 MB per minute, less than half the size of a 320 kbps MP3 made from the same source. The audio itself is passed through untouched, but Y-Download still writes the title, artist and a square cover image into the M4A container, so tracks look right in Apple Music, Files or any other player. Files are deleted from our servers 30 minutes after they are prepared.