How to use the M4A to MP3 converter
- Add the M4A or M4B files.
- Choose a bitrate around the original: 192–256 kbps for iTunes music, 96–128 kbps for memos.
- Convert and download the MP3s.
AAC or Apple Lossless inside
An M4A holds either lossy AAC, the usual case, or Apple Lossless (ALAC). LAME encodes both to MP3. Lossless ALAC justifies 320 kbps. An iTunes purchase at 256 kbps AAC sounds the same as an MP3 of 192 to 256 kbps.
Voice memos are mono AAC at around 64 kbps, so a 96 or 128 kbps mono MP3 is more than enough for them.
Tags, artwork and DRM
Titles, artists and album names are written into the MP3 as ID3 tags. Album pictures embedded in the M4A are not copied over.
Copy-protected .m4p purchases from early iTunes, and anything saved for offline play in Apple Music, are DRM-locked; no converter can decode them. Your own recordings and rips are unaffected.
Getting memos off the phone
Share a memo from the Voice Memos app to Files, then open this page in the same phone’s browser and add it from there. The conversion runs on the phone itself.
Podcast apps that save episodes as M4A work the same way: copy the episodes out, convert them, and they will play on any MP3 player or in transcription software.
Questions
Are audiobook chapters kept?
No. MP3 has no standard chapter markers, so an M4B becomes one continuous file.
Will the MP3 be larger than the M4A?
At the same bitrate the sizes match. AAC simply sounds a little better than MP3 at low rates.
Can I convert a whole podcast backlog?
Yes. Drop the folder of episodes and they are converted in turn, each MP3 named after its M4A, ready to download as one ZIP.
Does it work on a Windows PC?
Yes. The decoder runs inside the page, so no Apple software is needed on Windows, Linux or a Chromebook.