M4A MPEG-4 Audio
M4A is an MPEG-4 container holding AAC audio. iPhone voice memos, iTunes purchases and many recorders save M4A, and it sounds better than MP3 at the same bitrate.
M4A converterHow to use the M4A Converter
- 1
Choose or drop your M4A file.
- 2
Pick the format you want to convert to and adjust the options.
- 3
Click Convert and download the result.
What is a M4A file?
M4A is an MPEG-4 container holding AAC audio. iPhone voice memos, iTunes purchases and many recorders save M4A, and it sounds better than MP3 at the same bitrate. It is a lossy format best suited to Apple devices and efficient high-quality audio. The main drawback is that some older players, car stereos and upload forms only accept MP3.
Frequently asked questions
Will the MP3 lose quality?
Both formats are lossy, so converting re-encodes the data once more. Using a high quality setting keeps the generational loss very small. Avoid converting the same file back and forth repeatedly.
Will the MP3 be smaller than the M4A?
About the same: a minute of audio takes about 1.4 MB as M4A and about 1.4 MB as MP3 at 192 kbps. Lower the bitrate to shrink it further; 128 kbps is plenty for speech.
Questions about privacy, file-size limits or conversion speed are answered in the general FAQ.