Youtube serves the audio and video separately; yt-dlp (the successor to youtube-dl) can download only the audio part, so there isn't any extraction necessary.
Honestly, I don't understand "piracy" much anymore -- almost everything folks want is legally available on a streaming service for cheap or no-charge. If something has been censored or banned (or the owner refuses to sell it anymore), then that's a different story, but legal services are cheap and easy now.
> almost everything folks want is legally available on a streaming service for cheap or no-charge
The majority of TV shows and movies that I watch are unavailable on streaming services. I know there's some more specialty streaming services for film these days, but besides that, it seems like its mostly well-known classics, anything mainstream from the past 20 years, or new releases that are available.
I solely credit piracy for enabling my appreciation of film and TV. I was never a big fan of either until I got access to a huge catalog and started watching classics that are not popular enough for streaming services to pickup.
Streaming services WERE cheap and easy. Now all the content providers are starting their own crappy streaming services and you end up paying more than you would for cable, when pretty much everything they offer used to be available through one or two services tops.
I expect piracy to rise until there is a Spotify of TV/movies
For music I agree for the most part. Tons of music is both available on streaming services, and for sale as a DRM-free download. The rest of the entertainment industry hasn't figured that last part out yet, unfortunately.
"Piracy" is still a thing for classical music - if you look for a specific performance of a piece you'd often find that it is not only not available online, but also permanently out of stock in physical formats since 1998.
I pay for a whole long list of streaming services. Very often I want to watch something that isn't on any of them.
They don't carry old TV miniseries. They don't carry many older classic shows. They don't carry many old classic movies and especially not more obscure ones. They don't carry many artistic/indie movies. They don't carry many foreign movies. Sometimes when they do carry something it's edited all weirdly, unlike the original (perhaps because they didn't get the rights to use the music or other stuff in streaming).
I still like the streaming services for what they do carry and especially for the serendipity of browsing around and finding something I didn't even know existed and would've never thought to look for. But that's about all they're good for. When I'm actually looking for something, they're usually a failure. 9/10 it's available on a pirate site though.
Do streaming services provide 5.1 surround sound mixes? As someone who listens to a lot of classical music -- often with a spatial element where players are dispersed in the hall -- that keeps me buying physical media (SACDs etc.), or occasionally resorting to torrents when someobe could rip the SACD image.
Honestly, I don't understand "piracy" much anymore -- almost everything folks want is legally available on a streaming service for cheap or no-charge. If something has been censored or banned (or the owner refuses to sell it anymore), then that's a different story, but legal services are cheap and easy now.