How to convert M4A files to MP3? Complete steps

Most music lovers have a big dilemma in their minds, whether to side with high-quality music or utilize their storage better. We generally come across mp3 format audio and m4a format audio, with the former being way more in demand and need. So, you are probably here seeking to learn how to convert m4a to mp3 compression format or maybe looking for a good m4a to mp3 converter.

M4a format audio is generally less used as they take up more storage space. That being said m4a files are of better quality than mp3 audio, but they haven’t caught on as most playback devices and software tend to recognize mp3 audio more easily till date. M4a files are usually used most notably by Apple across all their streaming services, music stores, players like iTunes, so when you want to play your songs outside of the Apple ecosystem, you would have to change m4a to mp3. There are other programs like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, Roxio Popcorn but we can all agree it would be better if you had those mp3 audio files around with you as well, when you are looking to use other programs or devices which do not support m4a playback.

Read on to find out the many ways and tools you can use to convert m4a to mp3 audio.

Converting m4a to mp3 with iTunes

Apple was generous enough to let users have the freedom of converting m4a audio to mp3 if they so wished. Who doesn’t like more choices? iTunes works as a great m4a to mp3 converter both on MacOS and on Windows as well. The best thing is that is also free, and there is a negligible loss of quality during the conversion as iTunes is a powerful program.

Here is how to convert m4a to mp3 audio using iTunes.

1. Open iTunes on your system.

2. Click on the ‘Edit’ menu at the top and select ‘Preferences.’

3. You should now see the ‘General’ tab open on your screen. Click on ‘Import settings.’

4. Now click on the import using the scroll down the bar and select ‘Mp3 encoder’. This option makes sure iTunes converts any file to mp3 format.

5. You can also select the bitrate setting. Higher bitrate equals higher quality audio but at the cost of more space.

6. Now click on ‘OK.’ You have now successfully set the conditions for importing your m4a or other format files to mp3 audio.

7. When you want to convert, select your files from the library, select the ‘File’ option from the top and finally scroll down to ‘Convert’ and select the ‘Create mp3 version’.

Converting on Windows using third-party tools

You also have the option of converting m4a to mp3 audio on Windows through a wide array of third-party programs which are mostly free and some others which you can obtain for a reasonable price. This is particularly useful because a majority of the systems in the world are run on Windows. One such program we highly recommend is ‘FORMAT FACTORY.’

Format Factory, as its name suggests, is an all in one file conversion freeware which you can use to convert any file to any other type of file or the same kind of file in other supported formats. This means that you can convert video to audio to a compression format of your choice, video to video in a different compression format, audio to audio in a different compression format, etc. But what we are interested is the audio to audio conversion, particularly to change m4a to mp3format.

You can download Format Factory for free from www.latedilnemewo.com/7ipd6xw/FFSetupLatest.

Here is how to change m4a to mp3 using Format Factory.

1. Open ‘Format Factory’ on Windows.

2. On the left hand side select ‘Audio.’ From the list that scrolls down, select ‘Mp3’.

3. Click on ‘Add file’ to select the m4a audio file from your local storage library to convert to mp3.

4. Once it is on your conversion list, you can also select the output setting of high, medium or low quality. Keep in mind that higher the quality, more the file size of the converted file, so you might want to keep that in mind before the conversion.

5. Now click on ‘OK.’ You will be taken back to the home screen of Format Factory.

6. Click on the ‘Start’ button to start the conversion process. A popup screen of the destination folder will show up once the conversion process is complete.

We once again highly recommend this tool. It is fast and does almost any sort of conversion most people would generally want while sorting their video files, audio files or even pictures. Another greater feature is the support batch conversion so that you can add a long list of m4a audio files which you would want to convert to an mp3 format having preset the conditions beforehand. The only downside is that since it is a free tool, you may see some advertisements popping up here and then which you can easily remove by paying a minimal fee. But if the advertisements do not bother you and the conversion is the only thing you need, then this is the tool on Windows for you to do away with your conversion issues.

Online conversion websites

Say you do not have iTunes or any other tool on Windows. You can still convert m4a to mp3 format using websites which do the work for you. Keep in mind this requires you have to have access to Wi-Fi, a wired internet connection (fast and stable one if converting a whole batch of songs) or a cellular data plan on your mobile device (yes, you can do the conversion from your mobile or other handheld devices as well) with enough data to last you through the conversions. This is because you are required to upload the audio files of your choice to the servers of the website you visit after which conversion takes place, and then finally you have to download the converted files again onto your system. This is without a doubt the more time to consume and resource consuming method out of the ones which we are going to tell you, but it is simple in the sense that you don’t have to look around for programs which do the same.

The website www.online-audio-converter.com is one which we highly recommend. You can choose between many popular formats such as Ogg, FLAC, wav, m4a and most importantly in our case mp3. It supports batch conversion and saves the converted files in a Zip file so it faster for you when you download the converted files again.

Here are the steps of converting m4a to mp3 audio using this online tool.

1. On the website click on ‘Open files’ to select the required audio file. You can also select your audio files from cloud storages like google drive, Dropbox and even the URL of the audio file directly onto the website servers.

2. You can now select the bitrate or quality the mp3 file you want. We recommend going with either Standard (128kbps) or Good (192kbps) to minimize storage use.

3. You can also click on ‘Advanced settings’ and select the frequency of the sampling rate, set the channel of the converted audio and add in other effects like ‘fade in’ or ‘fade out’ etc.

4. You can also edit the information of the audio file which is another great feature so that you don’t get confused with other same song names.

5. Finally click on ‘Convert,’ to start the conversion.

After the conversion process is over click on the Download option and your converted audio file/s will be downloaded to your system. All in all, this is a great way to convert m4a to mp3 format if you do not want to go through the hassle of looking for other programs to download.