This page contains information on the M4A file extension (MPEG-4 Audio Layer), a popular video file format

M4A M4A (Audio)

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
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

M4A Convert M4A file

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

M4A Converter Audio