Will my voice memo sound worse?

Voice Memos are recorded at 64–128 kbps AAC; MP3 at 128 kbps or more keeps speech perfectly clear.

Can I convert protected iTunes purchases (M4P)?

No. DRM-protected M4P files cannot be decoded. Songs bought as iTunes Plus (M4A without DRM) work fine.

Is lossless ALAC in M4A supported?

Yes. ALAC is decoded and encoded to MP3 at the chosen bitrate.

Audio Converters

M4A to MP3

Voice Memos, GarageBand exports and iTunes tracks come as M4A. Convert them to MP3 for Android, Windows apps, transcription services and car stereos.

Runs in your browser — files never leave your device.

Drop M4A, AAC files here

or click to browse · paste from clipboard · up to 1000 MB each

Select files

Options

Bitrate

Why convert M4A to MP3

M4A is well supported on Apple devices but many Android apps, older car head units, transcription tools and audio editors want MP3. Converting once avoids the “file type not supported” dead end.

The AAC audio is decoded by your browser and re-encoded to MP3 in the page. Title, artist and album tags are carried over.

How it works

Drop M4A, AAC files onto the box above, click it to browse, or paste from the clipboard.
Adjust the options if you need to — the defaults suit most cases.
Press Convert. The work happens on your device, so speed depends on your computer or phone.
Download the MP3 — individually or all at once.

About the formats

M4A · MPEG-4 audio (AAC) · .m4a

Apple’s audio format from iTunes, Voice Memos and the Music app: AAC audio in an MP4 container, better than MP3 at the same bitrate.

M4A usually holds AAC; the .m4a from Apple Music purchases may be ALAC (lossless) instead.
Voice Memos on iPhone save M4A; many transcription and Android apps prefer MP3.
M4A supports chapters and cover art metadata.

AAC · Advanced Audio Coding · .aac

The successor to MP3 used by YouTube, Apple and broadcast: more efficient compression, usually wrapped in M4A or MP4.

A raw .aac file is an ADTS stream without a proper container, so some players cannot seek in it.
AAC at 128 kbps sounds roughly like MP3 at 160–192 kbps.
AAC is the mandatory audio codec in MP4 video.

MP3 · MPEG-1 Audio Layer III · .mp3

The audio format everything can play: cars, phones, old players, websites. Lossy, but at 192–320 kbps close to indistinguishable from CD.

All MP3 patents expired in 2017; the format is now free to use.
128 kbps is the classic “good enough” rate; 320 kbps is the maximum.
MP3 cannot store multichannel surround or lossless audio.

Related conversions

More in Audio Converters · All converters