How to remove vocals from a song on iPhone
Updated · 5 min read
You don't need an app, a subscription, or a computer. If the song is on your iPhone, as a song file or inside a video, Safari can take the voice out and save the instrumental, right on the phone. Every screenshot here is the real page at an iPhone's screen size, and the timings come from splits on visitors' own phones.
What you need
The song as a file: a video you filmed or saved, a screen recording, or an MP3, M4A or WAV in Files, up to 500MB. An iPhone with a recent version of iOS, and Safari. That's it.
The first time you split a song, your phone downloads the separation engine once (about 90MB) and keeps it for next time, so do the first one on Wi-Fi.
Remove the vocals, step by step
- 1Open extractune.com/remove-vocals in Safari. The vocal remover is right at the top of the page.
- 2Tap Choose a file and pick the video or song from your Photo Library or Files.
- 3The sound is taken out of the file on your phone, and the split starts by itself. If a note appears first, read it and tap its button to go on (more on those notes below).
- 4Wait while it splits. The page shows the time left and asks you to keep it open, and you can start listening as soon as the first part is ready.
- 5When it's done, the four parts sit on one timeline with the instrumental mix already set. Tap play to check it.
- 6Tap Instrumental at the top of the studio to save it as MP3. For WAV or WebM, open the Split tab at the bottom and pick the format first.
The notes you might see before it starts
One-time download: the first time, the page explains that splitting needs a 90MB audio engine, saved on the phone after that, with Wi-Fi recommended. Tap Download and split.
Long file: for a long song, the page says how long it should take on your phone, that the screen stays on while it works, and that you can listen as each part finishes. Tap Start splitting.
Slow in this browser: where the browser can't use the phone's graphics chip, the split runs on the processor, which is slower, so the page says how long it should take and asks you to keep the tab open. Tap Split anyway, or Not now to stop.
While it splits
Stay on the page while it works: the screen is kept on for you, but if you switch to another app for long, iOS can pause Safari's page. The page shows its progress in its tab title too, so you can see it from Safari's tabs.
If you do leave, it's not lost. A half-finished engine download carries on from where it stopped, the parts of the song that are already split are kept, and a split that stopped while you were away starts again by itself, once, when you come back.
How long it takes
The split runs on your iPhone itself, so how long it takes depends on the phone. Where Safari can use the graphics chip, it splits up to 10 minutes at a time (5 on phones with less memory); where it can't, it runs on the processor, up to 2 minutes, and takes longer. These are the real averages from visitors' devices:
| Device | Splits measured | A 2-minute clip | A 3-minute song |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer with a graphics chip | 190 | under a minute | about 1 min |
| Phone with a graphics chip | 65 | about 3 min | about 4½ min |
| Computer without one | 18 | about 3 min | Over the 2-minute limit |
| Phone without one | 15 | about 7 min | Over the 2-minute limit |
Getting the song onto your iPhone first
The page opens files that are on the phone: anything in Photos, and anything in the Files app, including iCloud Drive once it has downloaded. A song on your computer can come over by AirDrop from a Mac, or by saving it to iCloud Drive and opening it from Files. A voice memo works too: in Voice Memos, share the recording and choose Save to Files, then pick it from there.
Streaming apps don't let their songs out as files, so a song you only have in a streaming app can't be opened here. Use a file you own, a video you filmed, or a recording you made.
Saving the instrumental
A split downloads as MP3 unless you pick another format: it's small and sounds the same for listening or singing along. WAV keeps every detail if you'll edit it, at about 10.6MB for each minute of song, so a 3-minute instrumental is about 32MB; pick it under Format on the Split tab.
Tap the download button at the top of the studio, or the one beside a part on the Split tab for that part alone. The file is saved by Safari: open the Files app and look in Downloads, or tap the downloads arrow in Safari's address bar. WAV keeps the most quality if you'll edit it, and MP3 is smaller and plays anywhere.
Want the video back with only the voice as its sound? extractune.com/remove-background-music-from-video saves the video itself.
Getting a cleaner instrumental
Start from the best copy you have. A clean recording separates better than a video filmed off a speaker in a noisy room.
Expect faint traces of the voice where it's very loud or drenched in reverb. That's true of every vocal remover; listen before you download.
Want more control? The Split tab has a fader for the voice, drums, bass and everything else, and downloads all four parts.
For karaoke you may not want the voice gone completely: on the Split tab, turn the voice down to a low level instead of off, and the original singer stays faintly in the background as a guide while you learn the words.
If something doesn't work
The page says how long the song is and how much this phone can split at a time: the song is longer than that. Open the Convert tab, tap Trim and extract, keep the part with the song, and split that.
The page says it couldn't read the file from your device: it's stored only in iCloud. Open it in Photos or Files so it downloads to the iPhone first, then pick it again.
The page says the file looks corrupted or isn't a supported format: try re-saving or re-recording it; a video that plays in Photos but won't open here may use a format Safari can't read.
You can't find the download: open the Files app and look in Downloads, or tap the downloads arrow in Safari's address bar.
More than an instrumental
The same split gives you the acapella (just the voice), a drumless or bassless practice track, or the drums alone: they're one tap each, next to Instrumental.
On an Android phone
The same page works in Chrome on Android, with the same steps. The file is saved to your Downloads folder, which you'll find in the Files app.
Is it private?
Yes. The video, the audio and the split all stay on your iPhone: nothing is uploaded to remove the vocals. The only feature that sends audio anywhere is Get the words, and only when you tap it.