The Y2mate site in the United States as of August 1st, 2021
Y2mate, one of the largest YouTube-to-MP3 converters in the world, is suddenly calling it quits in multiple countries.
Y2mate is officially offline, at least in the United States and Australia. The site, at y2mate.com, is one of the largest YouTube-to-MP3 converters (or ‘stream rippers) in the world. “Our service has been discontinued as of August 1, 2021. Thank you all. Y2mate team,” the US-based site read as of August 1st.
It’s unclear whether shutdowns are also happening worldwide, though Digital Music News has been able to confirm shutdowns in the US (where we’re based) and Australia (based on a user report). But as of August 2nd, the site remains available in other countries, including European countries like Germany, The Netherlands, South American countries Argentina and Brazil, and Asian countries like Singapore and Korea. Those installations could soon be shuttered, however.
In Australia, one user reported that the site is unavailable. Instead of the usual page, the following message appears: “Access to this website has been disabled by an order of the Federal Court of Australia because it infringes or facilitates the infringement of copyright. 1800 086 346 for information.”
The shutdown appears to be the result of a long-running battle with the RIAA, which represents major recording labels Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment.
Back in May of 2019, Digital Music News first reported that the RIAA had launched a major attack against Y2mate, specifically by issuing subpoenas against domain name registrant Namesecure and CDN Cloudflare.
That may have been part of a far broader attack against the video stream-ripper in multiple countries worldwide. But it’s currently unclear if Y2mate is getting shut down in specific countries or faces a complete global shutdown.
According to SimilarWeb, the stream-ripper draws more than 128 million visitors monthly. Its largest markets are — or were — the United States, Mexico, India, Japan, and Colombia, according to the web traffic tracker.
More as this develops.