How to convert a M4A to a AAC file?

Zamzar Pro Tip: The default player for M4A files is through Apple iTunes, however you can also use Quicktime.

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File extension	.m4a
Category	Audio File
Description	M4A audio files were developed to enable easy sharing of digital music, audiobook content, podcasts. It was generally intended as the successor to MP3 and the file quality is better and file sizes smaller compared to MP3 files. M4A files sound better than MP3 files when encoded at the same bit rate due to some of the enhancements. It's the default audio format for Apple products, Nintendo products, Android, Blackberry, PlayStation, and many in-dash music systems in cars.
Actions	M4A Converter View other audio file formats
Technical Details	M4A is a file encoded with advanced audio coding (AAC) and is implemented with AAC compression standards or ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) specifications. This effectively means that they can be decoded back to their original quality they were at the point of compression. It was developed by Apple and it only contains audio data, rather than MP4 which contains both audio and video. An added benefit of M4A files are that they do not carry any Digital Rights Management protection.
Associated programs	Apple iTunes VLC Apple QuickTime Player iPhone iPad Android Tablet Android Phones
Developed by	Apple
MIME type	audio/m4a
Useful links	What is an M4A file? Apple Lossless

File extension	.aac
Category	Audio File
Description	AAC is similar to MP3. It essentially cuts out, or compresses, information that the human ear cannot pick up thereby making digital files smaller and more easily managed and therefore quicker to download. AAC is about half the size of MP3 but with better quality. It is at least one tenth the size of CD digital data. Apple are the biggest users of this format and if you have an iPod or iPhone then you will have come across this format as it is iTunes default audio format.
Actions	AAC Converter View other audio file formats
Technical Details	AAC is similar in concept to MP3 but goes further. It too compresses digital audio files but to a bigger degree. It is also part of the MPEG-4 standard, it is most widely used to create small digital audio files. The current variant is specified in ISO/IEC standard 14496-3. Like MP3, AAC is a lossy algorithm. The human hearing system cannot hear quiet sounds in the presence of loud sounds of a similar frequency; for example, a voice conversation cannot be heard while an aeroplane flies low overhead. This is known as auditory masking, this allows the discarding of data with minimal loss of quality.
Associated programs	iTunes Windows Media Player RealPlayer KMPlayer VideoLAN VLC Media Player
Developed by	A combination of Fraunhofer IIS, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dolby and Sony Corporation
MIME type	audio/aac
Useful links	More detail about the AAC file format How to play AAC files

Using Zamzar it is possible to convert M4A files to a variety of other formats

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