How to convert M4A to MP3?
Written by Teresa on November 8th, 2008
What is the M4A format?
M4A is the extend name of MPEG4 audio standard, the common extension of the MPEG4 files is .mp4, since Apple began to use the M4A in iTunes and iPod to distinguish from MPEG4 video, audio format, the .m4a extension has became very popular today.
M4A - MPEG 4 Audio (audio compression format)
M4A - Mpeg4 Audio
Why you need to convert m4a to mp3?
The common, but non-standard use of the extensions .m4a and .m4v is due to the popularity of Apple’s iPod and the iTunes Store.
a. You have an MP3 player and decided to purchase some music from iTunes. Unfortunately it will not play on your player until it is converted to MP3 or WMA format, and Windows Media Player won’t even open the M4A File Type.
b. You downloaded a free cd and it was an m4a, but you can’t play it on your computer. Because you don’t use iTunes, you use Windows Media Player.
c. You have iTunes and have purchased the songs, but want to use them on another one of your computers that does not have iTunes. They will not play because they are not mp3 format.
Actually, M4A is a format iTunes uses. As iTunes uses a proprietary and DRM-ed format you can’t play them on other places. You can convert them to mp3 format though, which should make them work in more places. If you bought the songs on iTunes, the easiest way I’ve seen to do this is use 3rd part software to convert them into unprotected MP3 files.
How to convert iTunes M4A to MP3?
Here is a tip showing you how to convert iTunes protected M4A files to MP3 fast and easily using M4A to MP3 Converter and keep tags intact, this tool can also convert M4A to WAV audio format.
1. Download and install M4A to MP3 Converter. ( Download )
2. Run M4A to MP3 Converter, click “Add” button to import iTunes protected M4A files from your iTunes, you can also directly drag-drop them into the main processing window.
3. Click the drop-down list to select the “mp3” format as you want, and set output folder where your converted MP3 files will be placed.
4. Press “Start” button to begin conversion process.
5. Wait for few minutes. That’s it. You have just converted your M4A audio files to MP3.
The .m4p is usually used as the music format for the iTunes Store DRM copy protected content, while .m4a is now being used by the iTunes Store for DRM-free, unprotected music files.
Learn how to convert M4P to MP3
M4A and M4P are the two main file extensions for native Apple audio formats used in iTunes and iPods . All Apple formats are part of the MPEG-4 multimedia standard which is based on Apple QuickTime. M4A are typically compressed, lossy files using AAC encoding, and of higher quality than MP3. M4P files are the same but are files specifically purchased through iTunes Store which employ DRM technology to restrict usage or copying. The M4A extension can also be used to denote the compressed, lossless Apple Lossless format. This is not a variant of AAC but is encoded in a similar way to FLAC. You may also come across files with MP4 extension. MP4 is the container format specified in the MPEG-4 standard and can contain either lossy or lossless audio, or video. MP4 is the only official MPEG-4 extension, but most MPEG-4 audio files in circulation have M4A or M4P extension due to their usage in iTunes.
M4A MP3 Converter also supports M4A, MP3, WAV, WMA, WMV, ASF, OGG, OGA, CDA, FLAC, WV, AAC, MP4, AC3, AIFF, AIF, AIFC, AFC, APE, MAC, MPC, MP+, MPP, ADX, SPX, TTA, AU, NeXT/Sun sound (SND), MOD music (XM, IT, S3M, MOD, MTM, UMX), and MO3 music (MP3/OGG compressed MODs). And, the software supports batch conversion, which means can convert a batch of file to MP3 WAV at a time.
Key Features:
- Easy-to-use and fast-to-convert
- Convert M4A to MP3
- Convert M4A to WAV
- Convert MP3, WAV, CDA, FLAC, and WV to MP3 WAV
- Convert WMA, WMV, and ASF to MP3 WAV
- Convert OGG and OGA to MP3 WAV
- Convert AIFF, AIF, AIFC, and AFC to MP3 WAV
- Convert AAC, MP4, and AC3 to MP3 WAV
- Convert MOD, XM, IT, S3M, MTM, UMX, and MO3 to MP3 WAV
- Convert APE and MAC to MP3 WAV
- Convert MPC, MP+, and MPP to MP3 WAV
- Convert ADX, SPX, and TTA to MP3 WAV
- Resample MP3
- Resample WAV
- Add ID3 tag
- Keep ID3 tag when resampling
- Amplify and reduce sound
- Create output folders according to source files directory tree automatically
- Support batch conversion
- Support drag and drop
February 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
trs bon article . Bon courage
cordinalement equipe smail
March 14th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Sorry, I have no idea why I thought this was a Danish website. I’ll do this in English instead:
I have bought a Creative Zen mp3 player recently; I used to have an iPod so all my music is stored in iTunes. I have installed the Creative Centrale as it’s called, the Creative version of iTunes, but it doesn’t seem to convert my files into mp3s so I decided to uninstall it and use iTunes instead for converting the files and then install Creative Centrale and transfer the files.
So I am currently in the process of converting all my M4A files into MP3s, using the iTunes converter. However, once a file has been converted, the old file still remains thus causing the number of files to explode. So far I’ve been trying to delete the non-mp3 files manually one by one, but it takes so much time. Isn’t there a smarter (read: quicker) way of doing this?
April 13th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
this article is good.. i need news about MP4.. thanks