Best 5 Ways to Convert M4A to MP3 Online/iTunes/Computer (Free)

If you often use iTunes or iOS devices like iPhone, iPad or iPod, you will be familiar with the audio format, M4A. It also refers to Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE).

As a file extension created by Apple, M4A is alongside Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). Though it is not a well-known audio format, M4A has been regarded as a new codec which will replace MP3 format, because it possesses greater audio quality and small data size than MP3.

However, M4A format is not compatible with Windows Media Player and many other players. So in many cases, you need to convert M4A to MP3. In this article, we will introduce several free ways to make audio conversion from M4A file to MP3 format.

• Part 1. Convert M4A to MP3 with M4A to MP3 Converter on Windows
• Part 2. Change M4A file to MP3 with iTunes for Windows Media Player
• Part 3. Make conversion from M4A/MP4 to MP3 with online converting software

Part 1. Convert M4A to MP3 with M4A to MP3 Converter

Which third-party audio conversion software will you choose to turn M4A to MP3? There are a lot of M4A to MP3 converting software on the Internet. In order to make you quickly find the best choice, here we sincerely recommend you two reputable programs - Free M4A to MP3 Converter and Audacity.

Free M4A to MP3 Converter

As the professional audio/video conversion software, Free M4A to MP3 Converter has helped many users to convert audio between different formats. Apart from turning M4A audio to MP3 music, you can also convert WAV to MP3, and change other audio files as you like. Besides, this app can also help you extract MP3 file from an MP4 video.

• Pros
• Simple and clear interface makes users easily to run the free video/audio software. More than 300 formats are supported. It also has the powerful functions of video enhancing and editing.
• Cons
• You may need to purchase its ultimate version if you want to convert video files to 4K videos.

Audacity

As a frequently-used open-source program for audio editing and recording, Audacity has attracted many users' attention. What's more, this brilliant software can also convert diverse audio formats. M4A and MP3 are also supported. With that, you can also edit the ID3 information of the target audio. The following guide will show you how to convert M4A to MP3?

• Pros
• The converting speed is fast. Numbers of audio formats are supported. Audacity can also record and edit audios.
• Cons
• The outlook of the software is not that comfortable. You need to download extra files to operate the program, or you may need to buy its pro version for more functions.

Part 2. Turn M4A into MP3 with iTunes for Windows Media Player

Though M4A has greater audio quality, it's a pity that M4A is not compatible with Windows Media Player which highly supports MP3 format. When it comes to change M4A to MP3, many people will choose iTunes to do that. And here, we would like to show you how to convert M4A to MP3 with iTunes for Window Media Player.

• Pros
• From this way, you are able to free convert M4A to MP3 or change MP3 to M4A within only a few clicks.
• Cons
• iTunes only provides limited audio formats for users, such as MP3, WAV, AIFF, AAC and Apple lossless Encoder (M4A). If you want to change these audio formats to others like WMA, OGG, FLAC, iTunes cannot do that to you.

Part 3. Change M4A file to MP3 with Zamzar online

If you google the methods of M4A to MP3 conversion, you will find there are a lot of online ways for you to choose from. Online audio file converters are very convenient for Mac OS and Windows users. Free online converters, like audio.online – convert to mp3, online audio converter, Zamzar - convert m4a to mp3 and media.io – audio online converter. Take online audio converter and Zamzar as examples:

Online audio converter

1 Go to the website of online audio converter.

2 Click "Open files" to import M4A file.

3 Choose "MP3" as the output format.

4 Select audio quality of "Economy", "Standard", "Good" and "Best". There are also some Step advanced settings of bitrates, sample rate, channels for you to customize. Or you can edit Step the audio information.

5 Click "Convert" to make audio conversion.

Zamzar

1 Go to the Zamzar website.

2 Import M4A audio by Clicking "Choose Files".

3 Click "Convert files to" arrow, and select "MP3" from the drop-down list.

4 Leave the E-mail address for receiving the output MP3 audio.

5 Tab "Convert".

Notes: When you choose online ways to convert audio, you should know that there exist some risks. For example, it may not very safe when downloading converted file from Zamzar through E-mail. What's more, some online converters has limited in the audio file size. And the online converting speed is quite slow.

Still, if you have WAV files that want to play on iPhone or iPod, then you should convert WAV to MP3.