So you’ve got an amazing audio file to share — only, it’s pretty much trapped on your desktop for now. Until you upload it to YouTube, it’s not much good to anyone. And as you probably just discovered, YouTube only accepts video files.
But the good news is that you can still upload an MP3 file to YouTube with the help of file conversion software.
All you have to do is:
- Upload your MP3 to a video converter like Zamzar
- Convert it to an accepted video format (like MP4)
- Download your new file and upload it into YouTube
This guide walks you through the steps and particulars of uploading MP3 files to your YouTube account. It also explains how to optimise your file to get better engagement and wider reach after upload.
But first…
Here’s why it’s worth uploading your audio files to YouTube
Greater visibility of your content:
Not that you really need the reminder, but YouTube is a massive platform. There were over 2.5 billion monthly active users in 2024, with hundreds of thousands of hours of watched content per day. If you want your file to get seen, YouTube is one of the most obvious places to put it. So if you’re a podcaster or musician looking for an easier way to build up an audience, then it makes sense to upload your MP3 file to YouTube where it can get greater visibility.
Easy file sharing:
You can also use YouTube for transmission purposes. For example, your audio file might be too big to send via email, or perhaps your coworker doesn’t have AirDrop on their phone for simple file transfers, so you have to come up with another way to easily share audio recordings with them. By uploading the audio to YouTube, you can quickly share crucial files – just use the adjustable privacy settings to control who can access the content. Whether you’re a language teacher sharing an online lesson with students, a church leader posting a sermon for congregation members, or a manager sharing a leadership talk with employees, hosting your audio on YouTube allows you to share your content with whoever you need to, whenever you need to.
Online storage:
Another benefit of using YouTube? Not needing to host massive files directly on your website (or store them in your Dropbox or Google Drive account). Most MP3 files hover around 1MB per minute, which means lengthier files could be 60+ MB. Too many of these could slow down your website, which could push your site further down in the search rankings. They could also take up expensive storage space in your cloud accounts or on your device, which might force you to upgrade or pay more for storage before you’re ready.
This list could go on, but by now you get the point. Uploading your MP3 to YouTube is one of the easiest ways to share and store audio for free.
The bad news is, YouTube doesn’t accept native MP3 files. This means you need to change the format before uploading the file to your YouTube account.
Why you need to convert your MP3 to MP4
In a nutshell, you’ll need to convert your MP3 files to MP4 because YouTube doesn’t accept audio-only formats, plain and simple.
Well, that’s not entirely true — you can upload audio files, but only as extra languages for your video. This means that if you’re uploading a video in English, you can upload audio in another language for dubbed audio tracks.
But as a general rule, there’s no way to upload native audio to YouTube. You can only upload files with the following video formats:
- AVI
- FLV
- MOV
- MP4
- MPEG-1
- MPEG-2
- MPEG-4
- MPEGPS
- MPG
- WEBM
- WMV
- 3GPP
- CineForm
- DNxHR
- HEVC (h265)
- ProRes
The good news is, it’s not hard to convert MP3 files into one of these accepted video formats. This will get you around YouTube’s audio limitations, so you can still post audio to share online.
Let’s take a look at how to do this easily.
⚡Side note: You can upload MP3 files to YouTube Music for only you to listen to. Just keep in mind this comes with several caveats:
• There’s no way to share the uploaded audio — not even with a paid premium plan. Only you will be able to listen to the audio you’ve uploaded.
• It’s not possible to upload music to your channels on a brand account. Instead, you have to move your channel to a personal account first, then upload your music.
• You can’t upload music via the YouTube Music mobile app, which means you have to do the rest from your laptop or desktop.
If these are dealbreakers for you, it might be best to keep it simple and convert your MP3 to a YouTube video.
How to upload an MP3 file to YouTube
It only takes minutes (yes, minutes!) to upload an MP3 file to YouTube.
Let’s break it down into two simple parts: audio conversion, then video upload.
Steps for converting MP3 to MP4
First, we need to convert your audio file into a video format that’s accepted by YouTube. You’ll have lots of options to choose from, of course, but one of the most commonly used and widely supported video formats is the MP4 file format.
Here’s how to use an MP3 to MP4 converter like Zamzar to quickly turn your audio file into video for YouTube:
1. Jump over to zamzar.com/convert/mp3-to-mp4/. You should see something like this:
2. Tap Choose Files to select the file from your computer, or drag-and-drop your audio recording onto the conversion tool.
3. Now that you’ve added your file, you should see a popup box titled Advanced settings (optional). Tick the Add Background box to get a file compatible with YouTube (i.e. a video file with a plain, black background). Then, tap Apply settings.
4. With the settings applied you can now tap the big green button that reads Convert Now, to start the file conversion.
The conversion should only take a few minutes or less, depending on the size of the file. Don’t have time to wait? Check the box that says Email when done? before clicking Convert Now. That way, you’ll get a handy-dandy message in your inbox as soon as your file is ready for download. We store files for 24 hours, so you have plenty of time to retrieve your converted video.
5. And that’s it! When your file is finished, you should see a screen like this (or receive an email letting you know your MP4 is ready). Just tap Download to get your new video file.
Now you’re ready to move on to the next step — uploading your file to YouTube.
Steps for uploading to YouTube
Now that you’ve learned how to convert MP3 to MP4, let’s talk about uploading your video to a YouTube account.
1. If you haven’t already, head to youtube.com and log into your account of choice.
2. Next, tap Create → Upload video at the top-right of the screen.
3. You’ll see a popup that asks you to upload your file. Like with Zamzar, you can drag-and-drop content onto the page or click Search Files to choose the correct file from your computer.
4. The popup will now ask you to add various details about the file, like video elements, checks, and privacy settings. You can change your title, add a description, and state whether it’s meant for kids.
But most importantly, you can decide who can access your content. You have three options to choose from:
- Private: You choose specific people who are allowed to hear your audio.
- Public: Anyone on YouTube can find and listen to your audio.
- Unlisted: Only people with the link can listen to your audio.
5. When you’ve filled out the details, tap Save at the bottom-right of the popup.
And voilà! Just like that, you’ve uploaded your audio file to YouTube.
Tips for optimising your YouTube video for better engagement
So, you got your audio onto YouTube — congrats! Now let’s see what we can do to make it even better.
If your video is set to ‘Public’, you probably want to maximise reach and get the most engagement you can, which means sprinkling in a little extra magic, like:
• Using keywords. You don’t have to go crazy here: just one or two keywords that your audience may be searching for. First, you can use online programs like keywordtool.io to generate lists of trending terms. Then, you can add one or two relevant terms to titles, descriptions, and more.
• Adding captions. You can add captions and subtitles to make your audio more accessible, especially for audience members who have to ‘listen’ with their sound off. With Zamzar, you can easily convert an existing MP3 into an SRT or VTT caption file, then upload the contents to your YouTube video to create subtitles in seconds.
• Sharing on social media. You can do this manually or automate the process with tools like Buffer, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can set up a Zapier workflow that automatically creates content anytime you add something new to your RSS feed (check it out!).
• Making your video as enticing as possible. By that, we mean creating an attractive-looking thumbnail image, binge-worthy end cards, and chapter markers or timestamps. This will lend an air of quality to your audio-turned-video and help you stand out from the crowd (or at least retain listeners for longer).
What are you waiting for? Let’s get converting!
So, can you upload audio files to YouTube? Not exactly. But is it easy to convert audio into MP4 and upload? You betcha.
This means no more audio files languishing sadly around on your desktop. With the magic of audio-to-MP4 converters, you can upload any MP3 as a YouTube video to share your content with your friends, family, team members or the wider world.
Zamzar makes it easy to convert as many files as you need, with online MP3-to-MP4 software available at any time. You can also convert MP3 files to formats beyond MP4, like PDF, WAV, or anything else you might need for your project.
The cherry on top? You can get started for free.
Pop over to zamzar.com/convert/mp3-to-mp4/ and convert your first audio file for YouTube.
